Author Archive

More causes for híhi ‘laughter’

by

Chinook Jargon’s word meaning (fundamentally I think) ‘to laugh’ as well as ‘to play’ and the noun ‘(some) fun’ is híhi.

Further seeds of tatís ‘flower’

by

Just putting this out there.

More Salish ‘baby’ words in Northern Chinuk Wawa

by

Another ‘baby’ has been found!

William Mason Colvig (1845-1936) and a 1920 “Skookum Potlach” (Xmas) card from Oregon

by

Leo Barker “came upon this by happenstance” regarding a Settler immigrant of 1851 to southwest Oregon:

1917 BC Xmas card!

by

Click here for other Chinook Jargon Christmas stories, but…

Kamloops + other residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 11: an 1896 flood)

by

Today’s bit of information comes from the Chinook paper, although not in Chinook Jargon…

1915, OR: Bartlett + McFarland sing Chinook at pioneer party

by

The notorious Mrs. Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett performed some of her atrocious Chinook Jargon translations of popular Settler songs for her buddies…

Crowdsourcing: How would you track down these 27 Belgian Chinook writers of 1895?

by

These 27 young fellas were pen pals with the Chinook-writing Indigenous folks of southern British Columbia.

More humor in Chinuk Wawa: Quilchena, automobile, what have you

by

Today’s tidbit is from an issue of Kamloops Wawa that was only in French…

1905, BC (and WA): Early Days of Lower Okanagan

by

Here are some neat Chinuk Wawa-related recollections from the BC-Washington border area in the Okanagan a.k.a. Okanogan country.