Way back in the “frontier” era, when Oregon was a young state, you could publish an entire newspaper article in Chinook Jargon blended with the West Coast variety of Chinese Pidgin English.
A book that collects early pioneer memories tells us something noteworthy about the development of Chinuk Wawa.
I betcha the Cree one is more or less pidginized…
As we’re finding to be frequent among the modern Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest interior, Nsilxcən Salish carries many, many indications of a substantial contact history with Métis people’s speech. (All installments… Continue reading
Among the most famed “pioneers” was Captain Oliver Cromwell Applegate Sr. (1845-1938).
Truly rough “frontier” humor wasn’t rare in print at one time…
Chinuk Wawa was sometimes suspected of being an enemy code during the US Civil War…
Here is yet another neato frito confirmation that “stop” was a very common BC Chinook Jargon synonym for the various uses of míɬayt…
A decade pre-Klondike gold rush, a Montana newspaper article about Alaska has little else to do than reminisce about how the Jews, supposedly, were taking over that Territory at the time of the… Continue reading
“She” spoke really good Chinuk Wawa, and “Deer Ed.” didn’t need to translate it for his readers.
