The unavoidable Chinuk Wawa word “chako” (cháku) is typically explained as having come to us originally from Nuuchahnulth (“NCN”, of Vancouver Island, Canada)…but it may have as many as three sources.
One of the topics that keeps intersecting with my unifying theme of Chinook Jargon is the use of multiple pidgin languages here in the West.
This is a book that makes more of a literary impression than a linguistic one, but there’s worthy Chinooking from the British Columbia frontier here.
Way, way back when, in fur-trade times, “the River Quinze Sous” was a name for southwest Washington state’s Newaukum River, or according to some sources, the Chehalis River to which it’s a tributary.
As a Depression-Era honeymoon trip, a young couple rode horses across BC, retracing Alexander Mackenzie’s trailblazing 1793 steps at a time when Chinuk Wawa was still spoken in many locales.
We all have a colorful neighbor who always finds opportunities to inject their lovably offensive opinions into a conversation…
“Klahowya” also means “goodbye”…
And you think people are mean to presidents nowadays…!
I noticed in the old Pacific Northwest mountain-climbers’ magazine “Mazama” a species scientifically called “Menziesia: glabella, Gray” with a common name given as “skookum-wood”.
Zenk’s Law. Learn it, my friend, and you will speak better Chinuk Wawa.
