I found something that’s definitely usable in 2015, in an 1892 Chinook newspaper — it’s their “leftovers”. In previous years, I’ve read my way through every one of the 250 or so issues… Continue reading
One of the most frequently asked questions! “How do you say ‘I love you’ in Chinook?” If you go Grand Ronde style, you can say “Nayka q’at mayka”. That’s definitely romance. In the… Continue reading
LAMALA = “bottle”. I’ve already blogged today on another subject, and I’ve already blogged about the word that’ll be in focus here — so this will be brief. Looking at issue #4 from… Continue reading
SMOKE HOUSE = aboriginal-style Northwest Coast plank houses. Credit for this one goes to Dale McCreery, my absolutely crackerjack University of Victoria linguistics colleague. We don’t have this phrase in any of the… Continue reading
I’ve been seeing to it that public access to the awesome CHINOOK-L archive is restored; bookmark it for your questions about Jargon. One of the last messages in that older listserv that I… Continue reading
“A Siwash Knot” — Charles Suimptken’s and Harriet Quinpitcher’s wedding announcement from Twisp, WA ran as a curio — I know! — in The Ledge (with which is incorporated the Boundary Creek Times), out of Greenwood,… Continue reading
One of the first newspapers in Washington Territory was the Seattle Weekly Gazette. For the benefit of new arrivals, its volume 1, number 25 (August 6th, 1864) carries a Chinook Jargon vocabulary on page 4, occupying columns… Continue reading
CHINOOK WAWA DAY The Province declares, “It’s skookum to speak Chinook Wawa.” The Vancouver Courier wants you to know “Chinook Wawa Day celebrates BC trade language.” MetroNews says this celebration is “Reviving Vancouver’s ‘original working language’.” I… Continue reading
Here’s where it pays to be that weird picayune breed that I belong to, the reader of dictionaries. In the 1994 dictionary of Lushootseed (Puget Sound Salish) by Dawn Bates, Thom Hess and… Continue reading
(Previous installment.) […] Hlawt ilihi, klaska wiht skukum pus iskom […] Hallout village, can also be counted on to take mokst tatilam pipa; Shushwap tilikom, kopa twenty copies; the Shuswap people, among taii Adam… Continue reading
