1891: Schoolboy learns Jargon from mysterious ex-“governor of Vancouver”
If the description of the speaker is accurate, this kid was lucky to learn from such an authority on Chinuk Wawa…
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A Yukon pidgin: Slavey Jargon
We’re forced to rely on a strange character for nearly all we know of an 1800s Far North pidgin (some think it may have been 2 pidgins) called “Slavey Jargon / Jargon Loucheux… Continue reading
Animacy that’s in the House that Jack Built that Robert Stuart wrote
Pop quiz: Was Chinuk Wawa author Robert F. Stuart… (A) an Astorian (which would make him old enough to be Mrs. Downey-Bartlett’s grandfather), or (B) the California gold-rushing father of Granville Stuart (which would make… Continue reading
Remembrance of veterans past?
A short excerpt from a short play involving shúlchast (which is Chinuk Wawa for ‘a soldier’).
1893: From Sri Lanka to Similkameen with Susan
There sure were a lot more skilled female Chinook Jargon speakers than you usually hear about…
1894: Minnie-Wah-Wah??
Everything about this story rings false…and scholars have cited it.
Who was the Southeast Alaskan John Maclean?
John J. Maclean came to my attention when I found a biographical sketch of him…
1853: “Lettre de monseigneur Demers, eveque de l’Ile de Vancouver”
(Don’t worry, this post is in English!) Writing a letter from the still-new settlement of Victoria (BC), a very important person in early Chinuk Wawa’s history drops in some precious samples of CW… Continue reading
Circa 1894: Polk County vs. Billy Warren of Grand Ronde
[Edited to add an excerpt from the 1971 article.] A reprinted 1971 newspaper article, by Alta Savage Cerny of Dallas, Oregon, in a local paper, recalls a Grand Ronde Indian prisoner and the… Continue reading
1914: “Chinook-English Songs” (review)
The hometown newspaper gave a thumbs-up to Laura Belle Downey-Bartlett‘s collection of popular American songs translated into Chinuk Wawa.