There are lots of places in the PNW and elsewhere that have Chinook Jargon names and there's a wealth of information on that subject including in this post or on wikipedia.
Something caught my eye while watching the short film HuyHuy. They referred to Portland, OR in the opening frames as PΚ°oΙ¬Ιn.
This got me thinking, are there Chinook Jargon names for cities like Vancouver, Victoria, or Seattle? How about geographical features like the Puget Sound, Vancouver Island, Cascade Mountains, Columbia River, Fraser River, etc.? Are these generally simply transliterations into Chinook phonetics, or different names entirely based on historical, cultural or geographical context?
If there are not established names, what would you call these places in Chinook Jargon?
Hello!
I have a simple question: if a Cascadian region would become independent or autonomous. Should they make Chinook Jargon the official language of the region ?
And of yes, under what name should it become official ?
In my opinion it would make sense to call the language Cascadian, since the region where Chinook Jargon is spoken is more or less similar to the area of Cascadia.
Sorry for my English, it is not my native language. Greetings from Belgium !
Watch out because this is some heavy stuff (violence, residential schools, death, etc.).
Although there's lots of factors that contributed to the decline of Chinook, one undeniable one is the horrific residential school system born out of a colonial agenda of destroying Indigenous language, culture, and lives. I'm going to be talking about Canada because that's what I know, but I'm sure what I'm going to say is relevant in the United States as well.
Given the recent discovery of 215 children killed and buried in unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school I thought it's important to recognize the role these schools played in the attempt to stamp out Indigenous culture, language, and oftentimes Indigenous lives themselves. If you are learning this language you must educate yourself on this and I hope you also take steps towards righting some of these wrongs whether its where you work or in your personal life. We have to recognize that Chinook Jargon was both sometimes a tool of these schools and also a casualty.
At these schools children were very often harshly punished for speaking both their own language and Chinuk Wawa. For example at Ahousaht School on Vancouver island it was "an offence to speak either Chinook or Siwash (i.e. their native Indigenous language)" and children were beaten for it. Every staff member carried a strap and this went on for 40 YEARS at just this one school. The last residential school did not close until 1996. The affects of these schools are widespread and very much still with us. This is the context in which we are learning this language and it's a context you must familiarize yourself with. The residential schools were just one facet of destructive colonialism that continues today.
You can learn the names of the known victims of these schools on the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation website here. You can learn more about residential schools generally here. Read the words of Saa Hiil Thut, survivor of the Kamloops Residential School here.
Most people around Vancouver will be familiar with Cultus Lake and Siwash Rock. Let me know what's around you!
If you were ever curious about the origin of the name Cultus Lake, which is called Swilhcha in HalqΜemΓ©ylem, check this out (p. 639):
>The name Cultus is just Chinook Jargon for bad because the lake was avoided by many people because of stl'Γ‘leqem creatures in its waters, if one looked into the water and saw circular stirrings of murk in the lake these were stl'Γ‘leqem creatures and one could get xΓ³:lΓs (sick from seeing supernatural/stl'Γ‘leqem creatures) and vomit until one died; Boas, Hill-Tout and Wells give stories of these creatures which were said to strip the flesh from human divers into the lake, people training for power sometimes used the lake because of its danger, it was also said to have an outlet in its bottom that lead underground out to the ocean; the stl'Γ‘leqem creatures have been gone for years now and annual canoe races are held on the lake, which is a provincial park; before contact there was a settlement of Nooksack people on the lake'
Hi everyone,
I'll just get right into it, we're making some language learning material for learners of Chinook Jargon as spoken in British Columbia. Since I personally don't have the time, the resources, or the skill to create a full blown textbook this has spawned a bit of a joke 'newspaper' that includes language lessons. See here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ke8Tz6BYM0TzZbPmbKBoZdCH1a6s8Isz/view?usp=sharing
There is no working font for this script so right now I have to write it all by hand.
I'm curious as to what you all think would be most helpful to include in a format like this for learners. Let me know and I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have about the language and writing system (called Chinuk Pipa).
