Chinook Jargon

From Free net encyclopedia

Chinook Jargon was a trade language (or pidgin) of the Pacific Northwest, which spread quickly up the West Coast from Oregon, through Washington, British Columbia, and as far as Alaska. It is related to, but not the same as the indigenous language of the Chinook people, upon which much of its vocabulary is based. Most books written in English still use the term Chinook Jargon, but today the term Chinook Wawa is preferred by linguists working with the preservation of a creolized form of the language used in Grand Ronde, Oregon. Historical speakers did not use that name, however, but rather "the Wawa" or "Lelang" (from Fr. la langue, the tongue), although the name for the Jargon varied throughout the territory in which it was used, e.g. skokum hiyu in the Boston bar-Lytton area of the Fraser Canyon, or in many areas simply just "the old trade language".

Jargon was originally derived from a great variety of indigenous words as a contact language for the relatively isolated native tribes of the Pacific Northwest, many of whom had very distinct local languages. After European contact, it also gained English language and French language elements, as well as some from other languages brought to the area by immigrants from other parts of the world. Many of its words are still in common use in the Western United States and Canada. The total number of Jargon words in published lexicons only numbered in the hundreds, and so it was easy to learn. It has its own grammatical system, but a very simple one that, like its word list, was easy to learn. In the Diocese of Kamloops, British Columbia hundreds of speakers also learned to read and write the Jargon (Wawa) using the Duployan Shorthand - as a result, Jargon also had its own literature (mostly translated scripture and classical works, and some local and episcopal news, community gossip and events, and diaries).

Contents

[edit]

Origins and Evolution

There is some controversy about the origin of the Jargon, but all agree that its glory days were during the 19th Century. During this era many dictionaries were published in order to help settlers interact with the First Nations people already living there. The old settler families' heirs in the Pacific Northwest sent communiques to each other, stylishly composed entirely in "the Chinook". Many residents of the British Columbia city of Vancouver chose to speak Chinook Jargon as their first language, even using it at home in preference to English. Among the first Europeans to use Chinook Jargon were traders, trappers, voyageurs and Catholic missionaries. Polynesian and Chinese immigrants made much use of it as well; in some places Hawai'ian immigrants married into the First Nations and European families, and the Chinook Jargon naturally became the first language in their households (as was the case in any mixed-blood household). During the Gold Rush, Chinook Jargon was used in British Columbia by gold prospectors and Royal Engineers. As industry developed, Chinook Jargon was often used by cannery workers and hop pickers of diverse ethnic background. Loggers, fishermen and ranchers incorporated it in their jargon.

A heavily creolized form of Chinook Jargon (Chinuk Wawa or Tsinuk wawa) is still spoken as a first language by some residents of Oregon State, much as the Métis language Michif is still spoken in Canada. Hence, the Wawa as it is known in Oregon is now a creole language, distinct from the widespread and widely-varied pronunciation of the Chinook Jargon as it spread beyond the Chinookan homeland. There is evidence that in some communities (e.g. around Fort Vancouver) the Jargon had become creolized by the early 1800s, but that would have been among the mixed French/Metis, Algonkian, Scots and Hawaiian population there as well as among the natives around the Fort. At Grand Ronde, the resettlement of tribes from all over Oregon in a multi-tribal agency required the development of an intertribal language, and so the Wawa was augmented by the addition of Klickitat and Wasco words and sounds and "more Indian" modifications of the pronuncation and vocabulary.

No studies of British Columbia versions of the Jargon have demonstrated creolization and the range of varying usages and vocabulary in different regions suggests that localization did occur, although not on the pattern of Grand Ronde where Wasco, Klickitat and other peoples adopted and added to the version of the Jargon that developed in Grand Ronde. First-language speakers of the Chinook Jargon were common in BC, both native and non-native, until mid-20th Century, and it is a truism that while after 1850 the Wawa was mostly a native language in the United States portion of the Chinook-speaking world, it remained in wide use among non-natives north of the border for another century, especially in wilderness areas and working environments.. Local creolizations probably did occur in British Columbia, but recorded materials have not been studied since they were made due to the focus on the traditional aboriginal languages. Most Chinookology ignores non-native use of the Jargon, and there is a current in Jargon studies to purge or otherwise creolize the English and French words out of it, to "Indianize" it. Duane Pasco, an important figure in Chinookology but of an older generation and also of "skookum tillikums" origin, cites a dialogue "between a Chinaman and a Swede" that, he says, was some of the best-spoken Jargon, i.e. the most idiomatic and most articulate, he'd ever heard. He also noted the adoption in the Puget Sound area's local usage of the Jargon of the Dano-Norwegian glemde, the past participle of "forget" and huske from husker - "remember" (Scandinavians, Irish, French and Hawaiians, commonly fraternized and drank and married among the native peoples, and of course worked alongside native men in the mills and woods).

Some believe that the Jargon (without European words) existed prior to European contact. Others believe that the Jargon was formed within the great cultural cauldron of this contact and cannot be discussed, by the name, without that context and appreciation for the full range of the Jargon-speaking community and its history. Current opinion holds that a trade language of some kind probably existed prior to European contact, which began "morphing" into the more familiar Chinook Jargon in the late 1790s, notably at a dinner party at Nootka Sound where Capts Vancouver and Bodega y Quadra were entertained by Chief Maquinna and his brother Callicum performing a theatrical using mock-English and mock-Spanish words and mimickry of European dress and mannerisms. There evidently was a Jargon of some kind in use in the Queen Charlotte, but this "Haida Jargon" is not known to have shared anything in common with Chinook Jargon, or with the Nooktan-Chinookan "proto-jargon" which is its foundation.

Many words in Chinook Jargon clearly had different meanings and pronunciations at various points in history, and continued to evolve into interesting regional variants. A few scholars have tried to improve the spelling, but since it was mostly a spoken language this is difficult (and many users tend to prefer the sort of spelling they use in English).

[edit]

Usage

Pacific Northwest historians are well acquainted with the Chinook Jargon, in name if not in the ability to understand it as mention of it, and sometimes phrases of it, turn in in nearly every piece of historical source material before 1900. For everyone else, the fact that Chinook Jargon ever existed is relatively unknown, perhaps due to the great influx of newcomers into the influential urban areas. However, the memory of this language is not likely to fade entirely. Many words are still used and enjoyed throughout Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. Oldtimers still dimly remember it, although in their youth, speaking this language was discouraged as slang. Nonetheless, it was the working language in many towns and workplaces, notably in ranching country and in canneries on the British Columbia Coast where it was necessary in the strongly multiethnic workforce. Place names throughout this region bear Jargon names and words are preserved in various rural industries such as logging and fishing.

The Chinook Jargon was multicultural and functional. There was no Official Chinook Jargon, although the past (and present) publishers of dictionaries would have had you believe otherwise. To those familiar with it, Chinook Jargon is often considered a wonderful cultural inheritance. For this reason, and because Jargon has not quite died, enthusiasts actively promote the revival of the language in everyday western speech.

An art installation featuring Chinook Jargon can be viewed on the Seawall in Yaletown, in Vancouver, British Columbia (at the foot of Davie Street).

[edit]

Vocabulary

Jargon placenames are found throughout the Pacific Northwest and Mountain States.

A few Jargon words:

  • Nika or naika: I, mine or anything first-person (spellings are optional, pronunciation is the same. In Grand Ronde Chinuk-Wawa the 'k' is unaspirated, unlike in British Columbia versions of the Jargon.
  • hyak: fast, swift. This word, in its occasional speelling hyack, is the nickname for the New Westminter regiment of the Canadian Forces, who annually set off a 21-anvil salute during the Victoria Day weekend every year.
  • hyas: big, important; hyas tyee - king, high chief (see tyee below)
  • cultus: bad, worthless, inconsequential, unimportant. Or just "ordinary" or "nothing special", and also "idle". Cultus klatawa — going for a walk, ambling about, wandering. Cultus mitlite — not doing much (e.g. in response to watcha doin?). This is the name of a large and popular resort lake near Chilliwack, British Columbia.
  • memaloose: dead, dead body or death. Memaloose illahee - graveyard, cemetery. Mamook memaloose - kill.
  • hyas pusspuss: cougar (was used on the T.V. show "Beachcombers"). The word swaawa (from St'at'imcets and Nlaka'pamux was used in BC). Puss-puss by itself is simply "cat", as in the ordinary cat. Tenas puss-puss — "kitten". In the Puget Sound area puss-puss was rendered pish-pish.
  • kamuks or comox — dog. This would have originally referred to a now-extinct species of domestic dog once common in the region, which was raised for its wool and meat. This breed is often depicted in drawings and paintings from the earliest eras.
  • talapus — coyote. In Grand Ronde Chinuk-Wawa the initial t is plosive.
  • leloo or lelu — wolf. Hyas leloo — timberwolf. A wolf may also be hyas talapus
  • lemolo — wild, dangerous, from the backcountry. From Fr. le marron, a runaway slave or renegade (as in French, accent on last syllable). Lemolo infers savagery as well as rebellion, but an animal may also be lemolo, with the sense leaning towards loco as well as dangerous. Lemolo stone kiuatan - stallion gone loco (i.e. not just a mustang)
  • cayuse: a horse or pony, in some areas also a coyote; the variant cayoosh is found in British Columbia and has special meaning there as a bloodline of Indian mountain pony. Originally from the Spanish caballo. The more usual usage for horse was kiuatan, also an adaption (via Sahaptian) of the Spanish caballo
  • Many equestrian terms are from French:
    • lasell, saddle; from Fr. laselle
    • lagley — a grey horse. from Fr. le gris (a grey horse)
    • lekay or lekay — a piebald or appaloosa horse, from Fr. le caille.
    • leblow or leblau from fR. le bleu — a chestnut-coloured or sorrel horse. Such a horse may also be a pil cayoosh or pil kiuatan - a red horse.
    • sandelie or sandalee — a roan-coloured horse, either from Fr. cendre - ash - or from Engl. sandy.
    • lableed — bridle
    • Leseeblo — spurs, from French
    • Sitlay or sitliay — stirrups, from French
    • Sitlay, sitliay - stirrups
    • lamel — mule. Also burdash kiuatan or burdash cayoosh (from Fr. berdache) but that would more mean a gelding, as burdash moos-moos is a steer. Burdash refers to accidental or incidental hermaphroditism or lack of gender, such as by castration or unusual birth, rather than to effiminacy or sexual proclivities.
  • Many religious terms are from French:
    • leplet — priest, also used for non-Catholic preacher or parson
    • lekleese — church
  • malakwa — mosquito, from Fr. maringouin (accent on first syllable)
  • hooch — not found in the Columbia and Grand Ronde versions of the jargon, this is a northern word ascribed to the Tlinkit subgroup the Hoochenoo which was current throughout northern and upper coastal usages of the Jargon, and of course has become part of standard English vocabularies, at least throughout Canada and the US.
  • lapishemo — saddle-blanket and trappings of a horse. Not from French, but believed to be from Ojibway, apparently brought to the Northwest via the voyageurs or other fur company employees.
  • eena or ina — beaver
  • Suwellel — the mountain beaver or boomer. This word for this animal is current in English (for those who know of its existence).
  • nenamooks — otter (but not the sea otter)
  • hum opoots— skunk (lit. "stinky butt")
  • mahsh: send, throw, put, eject, get on with it, get out (command). Thought to be from the French marcher via an expression used by the voyageurs to move goods on and off their boats and in and out of storehouses, but the meaning of the verb was miconstrued and is used in the Jargon with the altered meanings listed. It can also be used to mean sell, especially when used in combination with mahkook which means to trade. A sealed bargain is a done deal, hui-hui, from the French oui-oui
  • mowitch: deer, game. Hyas mowitch can be a moose or an elk, although elk is usually moolack or moolock. Mowitch is extremely common throughout the Plateau and the Coast in use by natives as well as non-natives, and is found as far southeast as Shoshone territory and up into Alaska. Moolack is also fairly well-known, but not to the same degree.
  • lemooto or lemoto — sheep, mutton. Tenas lemooto — lamb. Man lemooto - ram, klootchman lemooto — ewe.
  • cosho or lecosho — pig or swine, also pork. From Fr. le cochon (accent on second syllable). Tenas cosho - piglet. Klootchman cosho - sow; siwash cosho — seal ("Indian pig", i.e. as much a staple of Indian life as pork was to Europeans and Britons. Seal may also be Olehiyu or olhyiu.
  • olallie: berry. The Okanagan town of Olalla, British Columbia gets its name from this word.
  • laboos or labush — mouth from Fr. la bouche. This is origin of the name of Lapush, Washington
  • illahee, illahie, illahe (GR Chinuk Wawa ili'i) — land, earth, ground. Kloshe illahee — good land, bottom land pasture. Can be used to mean a plot of land, a farm or a ranch.
  • Tatoosh — milk, butter. Also means breasts, or the chest.
  • Tupso — grass, greenery. Tupso illahee — pasture (grass land). Tsee tupso Sweet grass (good grazing grass for horses)
  • Yakso — hair.
  • Lapel — a fur, from Fr. la pelle
  • labooti — bottle, from Fr. la bouteille (pron labooTAI, not laBOOtee)
  • lapool — chicken, fowl, poultry
  • lacock, lekok — rooster, cock
  • lezep, lesap — eggs
  • lasac or lazack — sac, bag
  • itliwillie — flesh, meat, muscle
  • lakalat— carrot;
  • lamonti — mountain, from Fr. la montaigne (pron lamonTAI). Hyas lamonti — the high mountains, hyas hyas lamonti the deep mountains, remote faraway mountain country. Note also hyas hyas stone illahee, meaning the "greatest and biggest land of stones" - the great barren high country (in Paul St. Pierre's novella Breaking Smith Quarter Horse; the context is the vast and diverse inland alpine areas of the Coast Mountains, flanking the Chilcotin district where the action of the story takes place). (Stone in orthodox CJ is usually testicles, the possible subreference here may be to the power and ruggedness of the lands described by the phrase).
  • pepa &mash; paper, book, something written
  • law — the law, authority, judges. Law man is not a policeman, but a lawyer or judge.
  • sojer — one of several adaptations of the English word soldier. This term was mostly used on the American side of the border, as troops in BC were known (in English) as Marines and Voltigeurs, and military deployments to quell native populations were virtually unknown (the Lamalcha War of 1863 being one of the exceptions, and ot involved marines and sailors, not soldiers).
  • skookum: big/strong, powerful, awe-inspiring; monster or monstrous (obsolete). Used as a verb auxiliary for "can" (to be able) or "powerful at". This word remains a common component of English for long-time residents, for whom it means something strongly-built, or someone genuine, honest, reliable. It can also simply mean "impressive", as in "That's a pretty skookum bicycle you've got there!" (British Columbia). Skookum house — prison, jail. Skookum lakasett — strongbox. Skookum tumtum — brave, strong-hearted, loyal. In names for individuals skookum is sometimes shortened to skook, as in Mount Skook Jim in the Lillooet Ranges, or Mount Skook Davidson .
  • high muckamuck(s): the chief, the boss, management (modern usage). In modern blue-collar usage, this word is one of many mildly sarcastic slang terms used to refer to bosses and upper management (British Columbia). Var. "High Mucketymuck".
  • chuck: water. This word is still well remembered, though less frequently used (except by weathermen giving sailing reports and marine forecasts). Saltchuck: the ocean or any saltwater inlet. Skookumchuck: rapids, whitewater, rough water.
  • Stick — stick, wood, firewood, tree.
  • Hyas stick — big tree or log, big/great woods/forest. * Mitwhit stick — ship's mast, spar (mitwhit — to stand erect). Some have suggested the North American phrase "out in the sticks" may have originated in Chinook Jargon usages, adopted by Klondike-era travellers and transmitted to other parts of the continent, as were hooch and high muckamuck (usually high mucketymuck if heard outside the Northwest, however).
  • mitlite — to be, to exist, to rest. Cultus mitlite — jes' hanging out.
  • tillikum — friend; also means people, kin (emphasis on first syllable), sometimes pluralized but not required. Skookum tillikums — hard to translate efficiently, but a certain "grand old man" of the high frontier and great old days, someone capable of hiking from northeastern BC to Wyoming if they wanted to, and able to defend himself in the bar, or in the bush. Used in Paul Saint Pierre's novella Breaking Smith's Quarter Horse.
  • tyee: leader, chief, a really big chinook salmon (Campbell River) (emphasis on second syllable). This word was commonly used and still occurs in some local English usages meaning "boss" or someone in charge. Business and local political and community figures of a certain stature from some areas are sometimes referred to in the British Columbia papers and histories by the old chiefly name worn by Maquinna and Concomly and Nicola, hyas tyee - king, big boss, important ruler. e.g. "He was the undisputed hyas tyee of all the country between the Johnstone Strait and Comox" - such a man would have been a senator, a longtime MP or MLA, or a business magnate with a strong local powerbase, long-time connections, and wealth from and because of the area. See hyas klootchman tyee under klootchman
  • tenas or tenass — child, small, little, young. In Grand Ronde Chinuk-Wawa, the distinction between ten'-ass and dun'-uss (not GR spellings, just approximations of pronunciations) is between small/little and child/young. Klootchman tenas — little girl, young woman.
  • cheechako: newcomer (emphasis on second syllable). This word is relatively common, especially in frontier regions and historically throughout (Alaska, Yukon and northwestern B.C. in particular. Chee means "new" and chako means "come". Ko means "arrive" (although when doubled it means "knock")
  • saghalie: up, high place, above. saghalie tyee — God. This term was coined by evangelists and as a result of its use saghalie also came to mean "sacred" and "holy". Saghalie Illahee - sacred ground, but not a graveyard, which is memaloose illahee.
  • potlatch — in ordinary Jargon usage this means "to give", or anything given. It became the standard word used to describe the great gift-feasts which underlay the Pacific Northwest Coast people's economic and political systems. Potlatches were ceremonials of giving away or destroying one's possessions to gain social status, often accompanied by lavish theatricals and conspicious consumption (and destruction, to show more wealth could always be acquired). The goal was to earn prestige, as well as humiliate one's rivals into poverty by forcing them to spend more on a feast to outshow your own. In Chinook Jargon, the word potlatch simply meant "give" or "a gift". Cultus potlatch — just a trifle, a gift (i.e. with no debt of prestige or obligation attached, as with some potlatch give-outs.
  • Alki— (rhymes with "pie) "In the by and by", i.e. the future or near future (the state motto of Washington and a neighborhood in West Seattle). In ordinary usage somewhat equivalent to the Mexican mañana, meaning sometime in the near future, or an indeterminate time away, perhaps never. It can be used as a verb auxiliary indicating the future tense. The present, the here-and-now, is alta, the past ahnkuttie or ankate (emphasis on first syllable in all these words). Another, perhaps in a more immediate sense, word for "soon" is winapie. Ahknuttie and alki can all be changed in meaning by the lengthening of the initial vowel, and by the addition of the auxiliary laly (LAH-ly) and the lengthening of its initial vowel, e.g. laly ahnkuttie, meaning "long ago" becomes laaaaa-ly ahnkuttie, the ancient past, mythical times. Aaaahnkuttie would mean more something like "a considerable while ago", either by hours, days, weeks, or months, i.e. as in a recent or relatively recent event, or perhaps in response to Klatawa latleh elip? (has the train gone already?) - "yep, it's gone". Laly by itself can also mean "soon", and tenas laly means "in just a little while", if not quite "right away", which would be alta (said with emphasis to add the exclamation point).
  • Klahanie — Outside, outdoors. This became the name of a longtime popular program on the CBC's TV service.
  • Konaway— everything, all, the whole shebang
  • Kunamoxt or konamoxt— both, together. Contracted from konaway moxt (all two). Hiyu konamoxt means a big gathering, as does big hiyu or hyas hiyu, though those tend to infer a party as opposed to a conference or other parley or rendezvous, which may be the case with chako kunamoxt and hiyu kunamoxt.
  • Kumtux— "think" in the sense of to understand, know, comprehend. Apposite to tumtum, which also means to think, but more in the sense of feeling. Tumtum also means heartbeat, or heart.
  • Cooley — "run" spelled that way to distinguish it from "coolie", but pronounced the same way. Used in the construction kiuatan yaka kumtux cooley, most easily translated "fast horse", but literally "that horse he really knows how to run well", "that horse he understands running"
  • Klahowya — the common greeting, identical in sound to "I'm hungry", which for differentitation in print is klahowyum
  • Kopa — nearly all-purpose preposition meaning in, at, of, to, from, by way of.
  • Ikt — "one"; while ikta is "it, that thing, this", and iktas is "stuff" or belongings, as in "my stuff", naika iktas.
  • Kloshe or Kloosh — good, correct, right. Kloshe nanitch was a byword meaning "watch yourself", "take care", and literally meainng "watch well". It was the official motto of the Kamloops-based militia regiment the Rocky Mountain Rangers during World Wars I and II.
  • Tumwater - a waterfall (heartbeat-water - tum is shortened from tumtum (q.v. above).
  • The English word house when used in the Jargon could mean a room or any building, smoke could mean fog and cloud as well as smoke. The English plural form was sometimes applied in Jargon formations, hiyu tillikums but also cultus Boston mans or cultus Bostons (rough translation: Damned Yankees), or hiyu whitemans. The use of the plural form is, however, not mandatory or regular.
  • Man can mean a man, of any origin, but also indicates the male of anything: tenas man lemooto, baby ram. Its apposite is:
  • klootchman, woman or female, long common throughout the Northwest to mean a native woman, but without the derisive sense of "squaw". Tenas klootchman - "girl". Hyas klootchman tyee - Queen Victoria, theoretically also Elizabeth II but no longer used in public proclamations as was the case during Victoria's reign, although BC Lieutenant-Governor Campagnolo may be styled that way, conceivably (especially since she speaks the Jargon). Klootchman mowitch - doe, female deer, klootchman itswoot - sow bear.
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Chinook_Jargon"