Help! What does “holy mucky flip” mean?
This question came in to me: “Help! What does ‘holy mucky flip‘ mean?” Can any of you help? Sounds like maybe Utah talk to me.
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Recommended: “A new mixed language in the news”
Over at the Language Log, Sally Thomason writes of a new language. It’s not an intentionally constructed one like Klingon. And it’s not a pidgin / creole like Chinook Jargon. It is a… Continue reading
Dear Tillicum thieves…
Found in someone’s Facebook stream… Dear Tillicum thieves!
Indian names
Presented, for your consideration: outsiders’ folk-linguistic perceptions of Indian names. White folks love thinking about them. They have weird phonology… We have found that the easiest way to pronounce certain Indian names is to… Continue reading
Pigeon Indian, or, how to talk to the Chinese
From an 1887 article titled “Siwash potlatches”, a novel theory of why Chinese immigrants speak Chinook Jargon: It was while I was in Ta- coma, by the way, that a very gifted and… Continue reading
The hoary anecdote of the Spotted Tails
Newspapers have a custom of printing stories from sources far away. In the 21st century, that’s because they get so much from online sources. In the 20th, it was wire services like AP… Continue reading
Soapology and washology velly chep
Chinese Pidgin English in the Northwest language mix. It makes another appearance in stereotyped Chinese-laundry form in this ad: SOAPOLOGY and WASH OLOGY Velly Chep WASHTUBS WASHBOARDS BLUEING SOAP WASHING POWDER AMMONIA BORAX… Continue reading
1800s slang words from Barkerville, BC
Somebody asked about “1800s slang words from Barkerville, BC“. That’s a legitimate language-contact question. Barkerville, for its whole existence as a real town, was a new community that was populated by people from… Continue reading
Fort Vancouver mobile app
A key venue in the history of Chinook Jargon, the fur trade and the Pacific Northwest now has “an app for that”: Fort Vancouver Mobile. It looks promising! I quote: The Fort Vancouver Mobile… Continue reading
CHINOOK BOOK: El Comancho would like your style, dudes
There’s a progressive coupon-book company in the West who go by “Chinook Book“. The story of that name is an interesting historical tie-in… Our Purpose The original Chinook Book was published in Seattle… Continue reading