Fictional Chinook Jargon isn’t always atrocious…
From the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Jane Austen Book Club”, some high-class fictional Chinook Jargon.
From the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Jane Austen Book Club”, some high-class fictional Chinook Jargon.
The other day I mused about Chinuk Wawa dictionary writer WS “El Comancho” Phillips’s weird pronunciation-spelling of k’áynuɬ ‘tobacco’ as < chinoos >.
Or a comedy of eras?
One of the early and omnipresent grammatical formations in the Jargon seems Native in its inspiration, while it may reflect universal tendencies coming together also.
I have questions, dear readers.
You learn a lot when you think about who borrowed what…
I think at least one lexical suffix each in Lower & Upper Chehalis comes from Chinuk Wawa.
In Klallam Salish (north end of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, opposite Canada’s Vancouver Island), the word ɬčəx̣-mít means ‘nickel’.
One of those “I thought I’d already written about this” moments…
A little-known manuscript by early Chinook Jargon expert George Gibbs opens our eyes to some actual usages…