Category Archive: Uncategorized

Why do we need a Chinook-Peipa (shorthand) font?

by

Why do we need a font for Chinook-Peipa that plays well with word processing software? 

2 reasons why that atrocious Chinook housing name might have been in good faith

by

The other day, I reported on an (unfortunately) atrocious try at a Chinook Jargon name for a Vancouver, BC housing development.

Another PNW Indigenous “Marseillaise”, and it’s a doozy

by

For real??

TRIUMPH OF THE IGNOROIDS!

by

The image you’re seeing is from British Columbia, 100% fact-checked! Okok pikcha masaika nanich yakwaa, dleit kopa Bisi-illahi okok, pi dleit naika kumtuks poos nawitka!

Reader poll: is “chum” salmon inferior?

by

Based on conversations I’ve had with actual Pacific Northwesterners, this Chinook Jargon-related question suggests itself:

Flipping a 180°: máɬx̣wəli ‘from fire’

by

Among the words from the Lower Chinookan language that we know in Chinuk Wawa is the adverb máɬx̣wəli ‘away; over away; placed elsewhere; on the other side; inland; over in’. That’s the CW… Continue reading

1901, Sechelt: I’ll come back and shoot you when I know Chinook

by

Humor! Ar! Ar!

Etymologies: the huge family of Lower Chinookan -skan, and the huge value of back-translating

by

I’m not here to criticize my academic great-grandfather Franz Boas, I’m here to help folks understand Indigenous languages a bit better, just like him.

Spotted in the wild: Chinuk restaurant in Bellingham, WA

by

I don’t really get what’s so “Chinuk” about this place — — but their logo suggests a real PNW treat. Bellingham, Washington’s Chinuk Restaurant, “flavors of the Northwest”. 𛰅𛱁‌𛰃𛱂 𛰙𛱁𛱆‌𛰅𛱁 𛰃𛱄𛰙‌𛰃𛱄𛰙? qʰáta mayka… Continue reading

“Kaltash wawa” is one of the oldest known Chinook Jargon phrases

by

Noted from the early 1810’s at Fort Astoria, kʰə́ltəs wáwa is among the handful of multi-word phrases in Chinuk Wawa that we know from the earliest documents.