One page after declaring the fur trade extinct on the coast, Geo. Gibbs (1877) tries to explain why nayka tilixam is such a common expression among Native people, and by extension among all Chinuk… Continue reading
There are tremendous numbers of loanwords into Nɬeʔkepmxcín (“Thompson River Salish”)… (Image credit: Wikipedia) (Here’s a link to all previous installments in this mini-series.) Many came from the neighbouring tribal languages Halq’eméylem to… Continue reading
Way back in the “frontier” era, when Oregon was a young state, you could publish an entire newspaper article in Chinook Jargon blended with the West Coast variety of Chinese Pidgin English.
A book that collects early pioneer memories tells us something noteworthy about the development of Chinuk Wawa.
I betcha the Cree one is more or less pidginized…
As we’re finding to be frequent among the modern Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest interior, Nsilxcən Salish carries many, many indications of a substantial contact history with Métis people’s speech. (All installments… Continue reading
Among the most famed “pioneers” was Captain Oliver Cromwell Applegate Sr. (1845-1938).
Truly rough “frontier” humor wasn’t rare in print at one time…
Chinuk Wawa was sometimes suspected of being an enemy code during the US Civil War…
Here is yet another neato frito confirmation that “stop” was a very common BC Chinook Jargon synonym for the various uses of míɬayt…
