A decade ago in this space, I wrote “Cayuse French, It’s a Thing“. I gave examples from books.

Song #4 from Myron Eells’s little book, “Hymns in the Chinook Jargon Language“, 2nd (expanded!) edition (Portland, OR: David Steel, 1889)…

Perry Bayne is charged with murder in the massively multicultural King County area…

The only dictionary of Quinault, a Southwest Washington Salish (a.k.a. a “Tsamosan”) language, tells us púm means ‘plum’. Huh?

Qalis and Alex Code sent along the “Address Delivered at Dedication of Grand Ronde Military Block House at Dayton City Park, Oregon, Aug. 23, 1912” by M. C. George, published in The Quarterly… Continue reading →

Maybe he immigrated to Ireland first.

The wonderful unique thing about Northern Dialect CJ is, people wrote to each other in it, quite a lot.

I reckon this one counts as a picture, in a way…

“Indian School Closing”, says the headline, but it’s just about a graduation day at Chemawa.

One of the easiest parts of Chinook Jargon grammar to learn are the simple commands…