Franz Boas learns Chinook shorthand in an evening & writes a want ad in it!

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File this under Believe It Or Not! Perhaps THE most amazing case of synchronicity in our Chinook Jargon world: the, well, legendary Franz Boas (he founded the Department of Anthropology and indirectly the… Continue reading

A. Delano & why Chinuk Wawa was thought to extend to the Rocky Mts.

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Not too long ago, I read the Forty-Niner A[lonzo] Delano’s 1854 book: “Life on the Plains and Among the Diggings; being Scenes and Adventures of an Overland Journey to California: with Particular Incidents… Continue reading

Chinuk Wawa alím ‘to rest’ is Salish

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This Chinuk Wawa word alím ‘to rest’ has been a puzzle. Grand Rounde’s dictionary plays with possible French or Lower Chinookan sources for it…    (Photo credit: Cheryl’s Trading Post) But now that I’m constantly… Continue reading

Dudes of Seattle

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I though you’d enjoy a couple of fun anecdotes from Clarence Bagley’s detailed, knowledgeable “History of Seattle” (published there by S.J. Clarke Publishing Company in 1916). (Image from Amazon.com.) The first has to… Continue reading

HORSES! CUITANS!!

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Sometimes you just need a dose of old-time advertising in Chinuk Wawa… HORSES! CUITANS!! The subscriber begs leave to inform his numerous friends and the public generally, that he is always on hand,… Continue reading

Salish as an intercultural lingo…before Chinuk Wawa?

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I have an idea building in my mind that Coast Salish provided an intercultural lingo, maybe before “contact” with the (drifted ashore/dead/floating houses/other hypotheses) white people…and definitely soon after. (Photo credit: SFU Museum.)… Continue reading

‘Round water’, a Native metaphor

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Words for ‘bay’… In Chinuk Wawa you say luʔlu-tsəqw, ’round-water’. And you think, yes, that makes sense. (Images from Australia.com.) Salish speakers in the homeland of Chinuk Wawa agree with you. Quinault speakers say tál̓-maɬ-ču which… Continue reading

‘Dog’ in Coos

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Since I was talking about cats in Quinault yesterday… How is Coos kwīʹyos ʹdogʹ a Chinook Jargon word, as Leo Frachtenberg claims in “Coos Texts” (1913:205)? (Image from Carol’s Pet Sitting, Coos Bay,… Continue reading

‘Lion’ in Quinault

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Random stuff comes up while I’m working on ɬəw̓ál̓məš (Lower Chehalis Salish, one of the main ancestors of Chinuk Wawa). Sometimes I share that stuff, because it might wind up being useful. And… Continue reading

Do white people stink?

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This one’s not strictly Chinook Jargon — but read on for a fun tie-in. (Image from Stages Theatre Company.) Our venerable colleague, the late Dutch linguist Aert Kuipers, created a wonderful research help… Continue reading