Mayne 1862: Chinook’ll get you to Yale, French to Kamloops

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Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island: An Account of Their Forests, Rivers, Coasts, Gold Fields and Resources for Colonisation By Richard C. Mayne.  London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1862. More or less a… Continue reading →

Clive “Zelig” Phillipps-Wolley

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Clive Phillipps-Wolley, whose fictional story involving CJ in BC I blogged about just a couple days back, seems to turn up everywhere once you start noticing him.  Like Bert the Muppet in pro-Bin… Continue reading →

Attorney: My language, call it jargon if you wish

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I’ve seen this story repeated in a few old sources, but I don’t think it’s well known in our present circle of Chinook Jargon partisans. One reason it’s interesting is because this is… Continue reading →

They believe that those who speak the jargon are King George men

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A “Letter from Frazer River” [sic, the usual spelling back then] takes up parts of columns 3 and 4 on page 2 in the Olympia, Washington Territory Pioneer and Democrat edition of Friday, August… Continue reading →

Mukmuk the beaver

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A propos of nothing, here’s a 2010 Olympic mascot I wish I’d bought a t-shirt or toque of: Mukmuk the beaver. Sorry–after dropping this image into my post, I read that M. is… Continue reading →

Our English as she is spoke (or a column only Canadians will understand)

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By Dave Bidini in the National Post.  Give’r! But it sounds like he stopped right about the Alberta-BC border, eh?  😉 I’ve never heard BC folks call each other “Skookum”.  See my addendum below.… Continue reading →

Gold, Gold, in Cariboo!

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I came across a pretty interesting book, “Gold, Gold, in Cariboo: A Story of Adventure in British Columbia”, that has Chinook Jargon as well as dramatic features that make it worth a read.… Continue reading →

Our first night in this locality of foreign jargon

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I know that I have Emily Carr fans among my readers. Can any of you connect this painting of hers, “Our First Night in This Locality of Foreign Jargon”, with a particular event… Continue reading →

Chinook Wawa in the language cloud

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“Chinook Wawa in the language cloud“: EGADS, what does that mean? Focus on the red dot.  Now, slowly cross your eyes.  JK! In seriousness, I’m presuming the good folks over at Ethnologue will… Continue reading →

Brought to you by the letter O (in shorthand)

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(Update 05/07/2013:  See below for edits showing my interpretation of the CJ here. — Dave) The first issue of the legendary Chinook Jargon missionary newspaper Kamloops Wawa has been shown in a lot of articles… Continue reading →