Emphases and explications added freely by yr editor. — DDR I’m inferring that someone got on this Nanaimo newspaper reporter’s case about his poor command of Chinook Jargon. Look at the timing of… Continue reading →

A short note today on a 4-step chain of interpreters in a court case involving folks of several cultures. The case was an interesting one, there being two Chinese and one Chinook and… Continue reading →

“Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald during the Years 1845-1851: Under the Command of Captain Henry Kellett Being a Circumnavigation of the Globe…” (volume 1) by Berthold Seemann (London: Reeve and Co.,… Continue reading →

If you’re a newspaper reporter in post-frontier British Columbia, how do you get around the British-style libel laws of young Canada, so that you can write about what look like questionable dealings by government officials with the native… Continue reading →

An advertisement in Chinook Jargon, in a post-frontier BC newspaper. As we often see in this time period, settlers could be expected both to be literate and to comprehend the pidgin. [My clarifications… Continue reading →

Regular readers will understand that the Chinook Jargon word siwash migrated into Pacific Northwest regional English, with mostly distressing results. Today I’m sharing an 1898 local-colour piece from the Boundary Country of British Columbia,… Continue reading →

This Chinook Jargon letter from Greenwood, BC, is not only a neat new example of the post-frontier, English-language-influenced, genre of writing in the language– –it also gets us closer to the origins of the… Continue reading →

Again with the late-frontier era tilt towards English in people’s Chinook Jargon. This time we’re taken to far northwestern British Columbia’s Taku River district. I’ll add clarifications and translations in brackets: The Siwash… Continue reading →

Today’s lesson: learn how to apologize for a mistake in your writing, and how to say “Indian reserve”.      Ukuk Disiyus nsaika wawa, wik This Decius we were [I (Father Le Jeune)… Continue reading →

“Impressions of a Tenderfoot: During a Journey in Search of Sport in the Far West” by Mrs. Algernon St. Maur (London: John Murray, 1890).  It’s said that this was quite a popular book… Continue reading →