1874, BC: What do you call an Indian commissioner in Jargon?
How to talk about a high government official such as Israel Wood Powell (1837-1915) in frontier times?
How to talk about a high government official such as Israel Wood Powell (1837-1915) in frontier times?
One of the themes I develop in this website is that THERE’S A LOT MORE excellent Chinook Jargon out there to learn from, if you look past the usual sources.
“TOLNEUCH”: This piece in a very popular magazine takes its name from a word in James G. Swan’s bestselling 1857 memoir of life on Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory.
James Gilchrist Swan, early pioneer on Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory (near Astoria), spoke excellent Chinuk Wawa & could repeat a good joke…
In English, it’s primarily a Canadianism of a certain age.
I’ve got two things on my nose, er, mind.
When the first word in a short article is an offensive use of a Chinuk Wawa word, I’m already skeptical…
The phrase “potlatch house” first came up for my readers and me in an article about southeast Vancouver Island. (See “The Potlatch at Sooke“).
More about another frontier-era pidgin…
The local Kamloops newspaper wrote about kamloops Wawa in a piece that probably was cut out and sent to The Stenographer (Philadelphia) by…