Category Archive: Uncategorized

In which Jesus has his henchmen score some “moolah”

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[Edited 04/23/16 as I learned more about mules and donkeys.] Not to be an ass, but here’s the spoiler: an interesting word for “mule” gets used in the Kamloops Wawa‘s first telling of the… Continue reading →

Chinook Jargon for 2015 (from 1892): “leftovers”

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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 →

I love you: An old love letter, and emotions, in Chinuk Wawa

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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 →

Another new Chinook Jargon discovery confirmed: LAMALA for “bottle”

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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 →

Another new discovery: SMOKE HOUSE = aboriginal Indian houses

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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 →

Another famous CJ speaker: choreographer Merce Cunningham

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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

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“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 →

Another frontier newspaper vocabulary of Chinook Jargon

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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 in BC: this Saturday, June 27

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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 →

Lushootseed “5 cents” from US dialect English “picayune”

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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 →