1861: “Our Port Townsend Correspondent” urges proper Native pronunciation
This 1861 article was written by renowned Chinuk Wawa expert James G. Swan…
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Another version of the “Seattle Illahee” song!
Thanks to indefatigable anthropologist Jay Powell, a famous Pacific Northwest folk song that uses Chinook Jargon shows up in another version…
Even more traces of Canadian/métis French “calumet” (‘pipe’) in early-contact PNW
In a previous post, I claimed to have discovered a previously unrecognized French loanword < koulama > in early Chinuk Wawa, meaning ‘pipe’.
CW oral history of Dryad Point, BC
Thanks once again to Alex Code of PoCo Heritage for pointing me to this example of oral history being preserved in Chinuk Wawa.
1853: George B. McClellan’s PNW railroad survey diary
Previously, on chinookjargon.com…
Crowdsourcing challenge: More Chinook Jargon archival audio?
My readers have been known to come up with great responses when I challenge them…
Earliest, best evidence of the Alaskan phrase “skookum paper”
A phrase I learned from doing research in Alaska is “skookum paper”.
1857 West Coast Chinese Pidgin English: Dr. Lola of Sutterville
On the subject of Americans’ familiarity with Chinese Pidgin English, I was struck that the following newspaper piece only bothers to explain one word.
Kamloops hymns “testify” to English loans
The most recent English-language loans into BC Chinook Jargon, as odd and casual as they may sound to ear that are used to traditional (southern-dialect) CJ, are the normal way to express things… Continue reading
1788: Meares in the Nootka zone, and the limitations of proto-Nootka Jargon
A hat tip to Dr. Peter Bakker for nudging me to more fully explore British maritime fur-trader John Meares’ journals…