Category Archive: Uncategorized

1893: It’s easy to ridicule linguistics — but let’s leave Chinook out of it!

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The best tie-in here is, to my surprise, to Chinuk Wawa.

1851: Good lower Columbia CW sentences

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Preserved from the frontier period in the mind of a sharp observer…

1895: Spoke for Oregon — which hymn is that?

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A somewhat humorous anecdote raises a neat research question…

19th c.: THE BRITISH COLONIST (Part 3: A Card, 1859)

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There may be a snide pun between Chinook and English here…

1792: Galiano’s expedition, and a controlled experiment in pidgin formation

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There’s an admirable awareness of Indigenous people’s languages in this early contact account…

1865: Olympia store ad in Chinook

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Frontier-era clothiers in Olympia, Washington couldn’t go wrong by using Chinook Jargon to draw attention to their wares!

1874: Idaho Jargon doggerel

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“Cowboy poets” had a vogue around the year 2000, as I recall…

1927: Correcting one Chinook etymology, inventing lots more

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Way to give a linguist a headache, guys…

1858 US ad for Jargon guide to Fraser River goldrush: a reason why French didn’t remain BC’s language

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Just to prove the claim (no pun intended) that BC’s Fraser River gold rush of 1858 was conceptually tied to Chinuk Wawa use…

1803-1806: The Jewitt narrative

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One keen observer of Nuuchahnulth life was John Rodgers Jewitt (1783-1821), the most “Boston man” of “Boston men” to ever visit the PNW coast.