Category Archive: Uncategorized

The life & poems of Theo. Winthrop

by

One of the most popular Chinook Jargon-related books ever published was Theodore Winthrop’s 1863 “The Canoe and the Saddle“. (Read a fine-looking copy of it for free at that link.) Titled in the… Continue reading →

Oregon: There & back in 1877 (& again)

by

Here’s someone who monetized his travelogues to beat the band! Eventual Oregon State University founder Wallis Nash published not one but two books about his visits from England to Oregon. And he dedicated one… Continue reading →

Mock Chinook Jargon

by

The other day, I shared a couple of genuine Chinuk Wawa letters from the far northwest corner of Washington State, the Bellingham area. Today, from the same region but instead continuing my sporadic… Continue reading →

Bill Kaihumua weds a queen of the Quiniaults

by

  The intersection of Chinook Jargon and Hawaiian Pidgin English? What language did the blissfully wedded couple talk at home? The Hawaiian Gazette of November 26, 1907 reports (page 8) on the nuptials of Maggie… Continue reading →

Even newer light on “moniasses”

by

Once you get the fraught title out of the way, “The Aryan Element in Indian Dialects” is one heck of an article.

Inventor of Dene syllabics slams inventor of Jargon shorthand

by

-Notorious Northern character Father Adrien-Gabriel Morice’s “Carrier Reading-Book” (Stuart’s Lake Mission, BC: 1894) starts with one of his diatribes. This might seem odd in a lesson book. But there’s a very real reason… Continue reading →

Ways to express fractions in Chinuk Wawa

by

Fractions are a challenge, in the majority of human languages that I have experience of. This has to do with culture and history. Some regions of the planet — not all — have… Continue reading →

My native language (the Chinook)

by

Behring Sea Arbitration: Appendix to Counter-Case of Her Majesty’s Government. Pages 533-921 of “Fur Seal Arbitration: Proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration, Convened at Paris/Volume VIII” (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1895). This is… Continue reading →

Crowdsourcing challenge: find the original of this Chinook Jargon letter

by

EDITED 10/25/2017: thanks to several goodhearted readers, I can now add the entire Chinuk Wawa text, at the end of this post. Bonus: it’s actually 2 letters! Look below. I’ve had the heck… Continue reading →

Two old saws

by

A couple of persistent stories about Chinuk Wawa. From “The Story of Metlakahtla” by Henry S. Wellcome (London: Saxon & Co., 1887). It’s a narrative of how the missionary Reverend William Duncan came… Continue reading →