This Chinuk Wawa word alím ‘to rest’ has been a puzzle. Grand Rounde’s dictionary plays with possible French or Lower Chinookan sources for it… (Photo credit: Cheryl’s Trading Post) But now that I’m constantly… Continue reading
I though you’d enjoy a couple of fun anecdotes from Clarence Bagley’s detailed, knowledgeable “History of Seattle” (published there by S.J. Clarke Publishing Company in 1916). (Image from Amazon.com.) The first has to… Continue reading
Sometimes you just need a dose of old-time advertising in Chinuk Wawa… HORSES! CUITANS!! The subscriber begs leave to inform his numerous friends and the public generally, that he is always on hand,… Continue reading
I have an idea building in my mind that Coast Salish provided an intercultural lingo, maybe before “contact” with the (drifted ashore/dead/floating houses/other hypotheses) white people…and definitely soon after. (Photo credit: SFU Museum.)… Continue reading
Words for ‘bay’… In Chinuk Wawa you say luʔlu-tsəqw, ’round-water’. And you think, yes, that makes sense. (Images from Australia.com.) Salish speakers in the homeland of Chinuk Wawa agree with you. Quinault speakers say tál̓-maɬ-ču which… Continue reading
Since I was talking about cats in Quinault yesterday… How is Coos kwīʹyos ʹdogʹ a Chinook Jargon word, as Leo Frachtenberg claims in “Coos Texts” (1913:205)? (Image from Carol’s Pet Sitting, Coos Bay,… Continue reading
Random stuff comes up while I’m working on ɬəw̓ál̓məš (Lower Chehalis Salish, one of the main ancestors of Chinuk Wawa). Sometimes I share that stuff, because it might wind up being useful. And… Continue reading
This one’s not strictly Chinook Jargon — but read on for a fun tie-in. (Image from Stages Theatre Company.) Our venerable colleague, the late Dutch linguist Aert Kuipers, created a wonderful research help… Continue reading
An awesome but little-known document from the earlier days of known Chinuk Wawa history is Father Lionnet’s vocabulary (1853). The awesomeness comes from its showing us Jargon as used in its homeland on the… Continue reading
I often point out words that you should add to your Chinuk Wawa dictionary, because they got left out for the first 200 years. From the old Kamloops Wawa newspaper, I’ve learned a… Continue reading
