The Sugarcane Bell: Kamloops Wawa iaka aw
The little brother of Kamloops Wawa: Shugirkin Tintin! [captions:] Shugir Kin Tintin | Iht nsaika tomtom. | Kamlups Wawa Sugarcane Bell | … Continue reading
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Be not quass of nika…
Frederick Whymper‘s contribution to the Chinook Jargon doggerel canon! In “The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril & Heroism” (London: Cassell, 1883), this knowledgeable Northwest hand discourses sagely on Chinuk Wawa, including… Continue reading
Sleighing(,) a mystery
While I was reading, for my dissertation, dozens of Chinuk Wawa letters that Indigenous people wrote, one word was both new and surprising to me. Lasli. “Sleigh”, it seemed to mean. But I’ve… Continue reading
Happy New Year!
Verses for the end of year Ilo drit ayu son iakwa nisaika mitlait Nanish alta wan sno iaka wiht shako kopit… “Not very many days do we have left here; Look now, one… Continue reading
The priest makes it explicit, pardon his French
I’ve previously told how “the M-word“, musum ‘sleep’, had lewd overtones in Chinuk Wawa. Now the priest makes it explicit. Writing in shorthand French, Father Le Jeune observes in Kamloops Wawa #121 (October 1894, page 170):… Continue reading
Merry Christmas!
<Miri Krismas> kopa msaika! <Merry Christmas> to you folks! My gift to you is the first-ever Christmas story to be written in Chinuk pipa shorthand. I hope you’ll enjoy how it ties together Chinuk Wawa… Continue reading
The doggerel hits the fan! “Klose Nesika Illahee”
The doggerel hits the fan! Mysteries are sprayed liberally! From a one-page remembrance of an indigenous Warm Springs leader, “Stock Whitley” by Carson C. Masiker in Oregon Native Son and Historical Magazine, Vol. II no. 3-9… Continue reading
“Fish house” part 3: it’s so definite
First I wrote about discovering a Heiltsuk word that probably showed how the Chinuk Wawa word — otherwise unknown to us — for “cannery” was fish house. Then I found backup for the… Continue reading
Chinook snowman
Snowman: Chinook. Chinook snowman!
Kanamokst as a noun!
The word that was spelled kanamokst in the Kamloops area is known in every dialect of Chinuk Wawa. Dictionaries mostly define it in English as an adverb, “together”. This is what you’ll learn from the Grand Ronde… Continue reading