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Chinook: A History and Dictionary

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This is a standard work: an introduction to the "Chinook Jargon," a contact or trade language which was used by up to a million speakers from dozens of ethnic groups in the northern Pacific Coast region of the present United States and British Columbia in Canada. Chinook Jargon is a pidgin comprised largely of words from the Nootka, (true, or pure) Chinook, French, and English languages. The Jargon was born in pre-European-contact times, and was used from north of Vancouver Island in northern B.C. southward to the northern California coast, and inland for some hundreds of miles. The Jargon was used as a trade language not only among Native peoples of differing tribes, but also as a "linqua Franca" among non-Native groups as well. Thus, a Chinese rail worker meeting a French trappeur in the wilds of coastal Washington might well have had some level of communication through Chinook Jargon. Virtually all the White settlers to the Oregon Territories learned some Jargon to communicate with their neighbors. The language was in common use until the 1920s, and is still being spoken today, largely through a preservationist community centered around several tribal groups in the Northwest.

The book, first published in 1935, and an enlargement of an earlier one by Shaw in 1909, combines a brief history of the development of the pidgin, and a lexis, or word list. The scholarship of both parts has come under criticism in modern times, but as a widely-distributed book among both among late-period functional learners of the language, and modern enthusiasts, has achieved a status of "classic," despite the occasionally dubious history and etymology. As a means of learning something about the language and the cultural milieu which created it, it has the undeniable strength of being one of the few books accessible. A search on the Web will point both to other, less readily-available books, to sites dedicated to the preservation of the language, and to summer institutes and year-round groups which provide opportunities to speak it. Kumtux wawa mamook hiyu hehe! Klahowya!