Native humour: Formerly awesome boots
Hey Chinuk Wawa learners, you can do this too. Check out how easy it is to use Chinook Jargon for making jokes: ANKATI SKUKUM BUTS FORMERLY AWESOME BOOTS Ankati naika skukum tomtom kopa naika… Continue reading
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Speak of the devil, er, slëïghër
A rockin’ coincidence! Traipsing along the typically slick track of my work, I’ve discovered another word for “sleigh” in Chinuk Wawa. You might recall a week ago when I reported solving a longstanding mystery —… Continue reading
The Sugarcane Bell: Kamloops Wawa iaka aw
The little brother of Kamloops Wawa: Shugirkin Tintin! [captions:] Shugir Kin Tintin | Iht nsaika tomtom. | Kamlups Wawa Sugarcane Bell | … Continue reading
Sleighing(,) a mystery
While I was reading, for my dissertation, dozens of Chinuk Wawa letters that Indigenous people wrote, one word was both new and surprising to me. Lasli. “Sleigh”, it seemed to mean. But I’ve… Continue reading
The priest makes it explicit, pardon his French
I’ve previously told how “the M-word“, musum ‘sleep’, had lewd overtones in Chinuk Wawa. Now the priest makes it explicit. Writing in shorthand French, Father Le Jeune observes in Kamloops Wawa #121 (October 1894, page 170):… Continue reading
Merry Christmas!
<Miri Krismas> kopa msaika! <Merry Christmas> to you folks! My gift to you is the first-ever Christmas story to be written in Chinuk pipa shorthand. I hope you’ll enjoy how it ties together Chinuk Wawa… Continue reading
“Fish house” part 3: it’s so definite
First I wrote about discovering a Heiltsuk word that probably showed how the Chinuk Wawa word — otherwise unknown to us — for “cannery” was fish house. Then I found backup for the… Continue reading
Chinook snowman
Snowman: Chinook. Chinook snowman!
Canneries, culture contact, and spreading Chinook literacy
The unique BC alphabet for Chinook Jargon, Chinuk pipa, found a secure place in Indigenous people’s hearts in its first few years. Not just southern interior people, and not limited either to lower mainland… Continue reading
More about the flood of 1894
I blogged the other day about the great Fraser River flood of 1894; how about some Indigenous people’s eyewitness notes, in Chinuk Wawa? From Kamloops Wawa #118b, July 1894, page 131: <More about the flood.>… Continue reading