I’m delighted to share with you another Chinook Jargon song from more than a century ago!

For making me aware of today’s item, thanks to Lucas Damer, who I ran into in Chilliwack, BC this week at the 60th anniversary of the ICSNL (International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring… Continue reading →

From the Grand Ronde Tribes 2012 dictionary of Chinuk Wawa, you can learn a word for ‘turtle’, íɬaqwá. 

I remember folks, years ago, asking me if there was information about BC’s old residential schools for Indigenous kids in the Kamloops Wawa newspaper, and telling them “nope”. 

I just put up a post here about the “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary) prayer as preserved in H-T Lempfrit’s notebook, and it included an odd use of mank-.

My specialized book report on “Edward Ermatinger’s York Factory Express Journal: Being a Record of Journeys Made Between Fort Vancouver and Hudson Bay in the Years 1827-1828″ (published by the Royal Society of… Continue reading →

I’ve just been in Chilliwack, BC, at the 60th ICSNL (International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages), which led to my becoming aware of a new study that discusses Chinook Jargon.

I try to read what’s said about Chinook Jargon in the scholarly literature — so you don’t have to!

Definitely in the Northern Dialect of Chinook Jargon is song #12 from Myron Eells’s little book, “Hymns in the Chinook Jargon Language“, 2nd (expanded!) edition (Portland, OR: David Steel, 1889):

Most people’s grasp of Chinook Jargon was pretty out of practice by 1919.