Category Archive: Uncategorized

1870s: Ling Fu proves he’s American by talking Jargon

by

Be a good citizen, read “Voices of the Pacific Northwest“.

1840s?: Willamette Natives bargain over Christianity

by

A great quotation from the old CHINOOK Listserv…

1878: An addendum to “Exploring the Olympic Mountains”

by

A reasonably clear record of míməlust-íliʔi (‘dead.people-place’) for ‘graveyard; cemetery’ turns up in a half-translated form.

1877: Chinuk Wawa etc. on the Little Bighorn battlefield, from a Nez Perce

by

Hugh Lenox Scott (1853-1934) was seen as an authority on Plains Indian Sign Language…

Chinuk Wawa təmstiyu, from Salish with Métis + Chinookan input

by

The Chinuk Wawa noun təmstiyu ‘arrowwood’ has stuck in my mind for quite a while, as have many others that “feel” Salish to me.

1930: Williams, “Logger-Talk”

by

Another in my sporadic series of gems from the old CHINOOK listserv that deserve more attention:

1886: Held for Passing Counterfeit Money

by

LATE-FRONTIER OREGON PAPER SKIPS TRANSLATING. —

Borrowed numbers, and linguistic archaeology

by

Numerals do get borrowed from language to language. Famously (among Pacific NW linguists) the word for ‘4’ is essentially the same across the Salish, Chimakuan, and Wakashan language families.

Quinault Salish ‘buttons’ from Chinuk Wawa ‘gambling game’?

by

(s)lahál for ‘stick game’ is a Chinuk Wawa word…

1888: Siwash evidence

by

Another in our occasional series on the use of Chinook Jargon in the courts of the Pacific Northwest.