Why did drét become the only word for ‘very’, but only in the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation community of Oregon?

Seems to me this early set of contacts with Tlingits and their northern neighbors indicates virtually no trade language existed on the northern Pacific Northwest coast in the late 1780s.

In a previous post, I reported that US President Teddy Roosevelt spoke Chinook.

Here’s an easy way to see why it was that Métis speech was the “lingua franca” of the Interior Pacific Northwest, until Chinook Jargon took over.

We know that ‘dog’ is an insult in many Pacific NW Indigenous languages…

Boston trader Joseph Ingraham (1762-1800) spent a couple of seasons in Haida Gwaii and in Nuuchahnulth country, at a time when numerous Euro-American vessels had already become a common sight…

New details about Chiefs Louis and Johnny Chiliheetza’s visit to see the King of England and the Pope…

The newest-named Washington State Ferry vessel, the MV Wishkah, got me thinking.

I received a copy of the excellent book “Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia”, thank to the wonderful Lingoblog…

One of the first newspapers in Washington would seem to have lost little time indulging in April Fool’s pranks…