Shilalam, another Salish loan in Chinook Jargon
I’ve written about several recent (circa 1891-1904) loans from the Salish languages into Kamloops (BC)-area Chinook Jargon. They come from two main regions …
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Crowdsourcing: what’s the tune to this Chinook hymn?
Can you help me find the tune to this Ten Commandments hymn in Chinook Jargon?
The Journals of George M. Dawson: British Columbia, 1875-1878 (volume 1)
An excellent document of Chinook Jargon use — especially in the underdocumented northern end of its range — from a fella who put real effort into learning it, at a time when the pidgin… Continue reading
Inland Cigar Manufacturing Company ad, 1903
For sheer humour & bizarre, possibly unintentional, homage to some of the Indigenous traditions that were insulted earlier in the same issue of Kamloops Wawa, my favourite advertisement in Chinook Jargon is the following:
The assault on tradition continues
Yesterday the priest mocked traditional “wailing like Coyote” in mourning. Today, ritual bathing comes under fire.
Don’t wail like Coyote, weep like a whiteman
The priest tries to kill the Indian to save the person, or at least their soul…
Early evidence for Chinook Jargon: 1813
1813 would be early evidence for extensive Chinook Jargon use. On this point, I’m in agreement with Robert Francis Jones, the modern editor of “Annals of Astoria: The Headquarters Log of the Pacific… Continue reading
Harmon Brothers ad, 2 versions
It’s called “A-B Testing” in modern marketing. Can you spot the differences? Which version got a better response?
Indian hostler’s ineffable scorn
I’ll merely excerpt this lengthy early-frontier era Eastern Oregon anecdote from a late-frontier era California newspaper. OREGON WILDS. Lost in a Driving Snowstorm on a Desolate Prairie. BLIND SEARCH FOR A TRAIL. Frightful Fall… Continue reading
Sitka, Chinook Jargon, & the KKK
This little new discovery is one of the earliest substantial Chinook Jargon texts ever published. It’s doggerel, self-proclaimed. The eye-dialect spellings (Costigan’s Irish accent?) in the English parts are a giveaway about that… Continue reading