A constant source of sustenance for your curiosity:  The motherlode of Chinook Jargon words that nobody seems to have researched before.  Here’s a new one.  (Warning: offensive language, to some.)

I’ve written about several recent (circa 1891-1904) loans from the Salish languages into Kamloops (BC)-area Chinook Jargon.  They come from two main regions …

  Can you help me find the tune to this Ten Commandments hymn in Chinook Jargon?

An excellent document of Chinook Jargon use — especially in the underdocumented northern end of its range — from a fella who put real effort into learning it, at a time when the pidgin… Continue reading →

For sheer humour & bizarre, possibly unintentional, homage to some of the Indigenous traditions that were insulted earlier in the same issue of Kamloops Wawa, my favourite advertisement in Chinook Jargon is the following:

Yesterday the priest mocked traditional “wailing like Coyote” in mourning.  Today, ritual bathing comes under fire.

The priest tries to kill the Indian to save the person, or at least their soul…

1813 would be early evidence for extensive Chinook Jargon use.  On this point, I’m in agreement with Robert Francis Jones, the modern editor of “Annals of Astoria: The Headquarters Log of the Pacific… Continue reading →

It’s called “A-B Testing” in modern marketing. Can you spot the differences? Which version got a better response?

I’ll merely excerpt this lengthy early-frontier era Eastern Oregon anecdote from a late-frontier era California newspaper. OREGON WILDS. Lost in a Driving Snowstorm on a Desolate Prairie. BLIND SEARCH FOR A TRAIL. Frightful Fall… Continue reading →