CHINOOK JARGON AS A BC ABORIGINAL LANGUAGE: The following is an argument I wrote up as a grad student, a few years back. It’s keenly relevant now, eh?
I’m convinced Washington Territory was the world’s capital of Chinook Jargon-related doggerel poetry!
Honestly, you can add this one to the pile of things I thought I’d already written up.
Here’s another neat demonstration of how two pidgins, Chinuk Wawa and Chinese Pidgin English, coexisted in the far west of North America.
Dleit naika wawa masi kopa Alik Kod, yaka wawa kopa okok kopa naika web-sait.
“Relación del viage que hizo el P.P. Fr. Juan Riobó” is yet another firsthand source — this one unpublished — about the earliest contacts that happened between Indigenous people and Newcomers.
“A Fight for Federal Recognition” by Daniel O’Neil is in the April/May 2025 issue of 1889 Washington’s Magazine. Great in-depth reporting and ample, thoughtfully chosen photos make this a fine read. I like… Continue reading →
I don’t appear to have mentioned these Chinuk Wawa names from Oregon State University:
Predictably, the word for ‘Russian’ in Chinook Jargon came from English, but there’s much more to the story, including a new discovery.
“Seattle’s Historic Chinook Jargon is Having a Moment“, by Bess Lovejoy, is a well-reported article in Seattle Met magazine, dated April 21, 2025. Excellent photo illustrations and interviews with a number of the right people… Continue reading →
From Kamloops Wawa #142 (July 1896), page 155, one of the most vivid reading lessons I could possibly show you…
