Author Archive

Newly discovered Chinuk Wawa: “I am going to Victoria to see the Governor”

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You’ve never seen this splendid Chinuk Wawa document.

lakʰaset, a Canadianism

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Thanks to the great questions people ask, Chinuk Wawa discoveries happen.

The Tattooed Artist, or, doggerel galore

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A collection of late-1800s doggerel poetry gets added to our dusty heap, with surprising if mixed results!

lapʰala, a Métis word in Chinuk Wawa

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  lapʰala is part-French and part-Native, and it’s the key to S’mores 🙂 

Imaginary Chinuk Wawa, the worst kind

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There is a category of secondary (really tertiary) sources on Chinook Jargon that you need to beware of…

But with a Whymper

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The Western Union Company’s 1865 Telegraph Expedition artist, Frederick Whymper, wrote a couple of memoirs that feature some interesting Chinuk Wawa from Canada and Alaska.

Not with a bang: solidification of ‘ice’

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Many Chinuk Wawa dictionaries have declared that the way to say ‘ice’ is ‘hard water’. (Demers 1871 has ‘hard hard water’ to reinforce the point.) Actually…

Tillicums, nanage

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This oddball item would be an eyecatcher, in your local newspaper in 1898.

Byron (parody) in Chinook

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Can my readers identify the Byronic source of this Chinook doggerel?

Victoria, BC and Chinook Jargon history

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A good Sunday read: “Book Excerpt: A Perfect Eden” by Michael Layland.