Category Archive: Uncategorized

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (sixth page)

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Today we have only English-language dialogue, so this is my chance to remark that the Chinuk Wawa names of the five Quileute enemies (‘Red’, ‘Black’, ‘Three/Third’, ‘Four(th)’, and ‘Afraid’) sure remind me of… Continue reading →

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (fifth page)

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Today, “Chinuk Wawa operetta” gets real…

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (fourth page)

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In today’s installment, we have a reference to a World War I song that helps us establish the operetta’s date of composition between 1912 and the 1925 publication of the book we find… Continue reading →

Do cows look stupid to you?

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            Here’s a novel etymological proposal for Chinuk Wawa.

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (third page)

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As we “keel-a-pie” (return) to the story: in today’s installment, we learn more of the scene-setting details…

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (second page)

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Today’s page brings us our first Chinook Jargon song of the piece, but I have other major points to make. One is courtesy of my readers…

Keel-A-Pie, the Chinuk Wawa operetta (first page)

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I’ve already presented you the article that led me to finding this long-rumored but previously undiscovered operetta in Chinook Jargon (and English).

“Keel-A-Pie”, a Chinuk Wawa operetta

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Thanks to Donald Bushaw’s clue mentioned yesterday, I was able to hustle downtown to the Northwest Room of the Spokane Public Library, and gleefully scan C.H. Hanford’s  “Halcyon Days in Port Townsend” (1925).… Continue reading →

The Chinook Jargon, by Donald Bushaw

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An obscure paper in an obscure journal by someone you never heard of in connection with this language…it all leads to a wonderful discovery: the long-rumored “opera in Chinook Jargon!”

“alms” and Salish help

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So there’s this word < elamí > ‘alms’ (charity, baksheesh, largesse) in Francis-Norbert Blanchet’s Chinook Jargon dictionary.