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| Notes on Words |
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Chinook Winds
"Everyone says Chinook winds are the warm winds
that blow along the mountain front and melt the winter
snow.
But what would amount to our Chinook wind, is called
a Walla Walla ween. That's what we say, Walla Walla
ween, meaning that it's the Walla Walla wind, and that's
just cause that happens to be the people living in the
direction of the way that comes from" (Tony Johnson interview:
2002).
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“Savage"
"And Sa-wash, or Si-wash,
some people say Sy-wash, some Indians say Sy-wash,
but you know if you say Sy-wash in the wrong
place they end up as kind of fighting words. The way
we make a distinction between that is that we say Sa-wash
or Sha-wash, and that means an Indian, that's
all it means in the language, but from linguistics or
from our sort of study there that really is from Savage
in French. And people actually are mad about that and
they think well you know "How
is it they name us Savage?" But 'savage' in French,
from my understanding, I don't really speak French,
but from friends that do that had to borrow the context,
they're just wild. The example I was told was that you
could call a wildflower savage. it's not the same as
calling English savage, which Indians are accustomed
to, I think, being called savage. But that's, that word
savage (in French) is not that.
In fact one of the words for the language we're talking
about or that I am speaking is Sashawa-swawa
or Shawa-swawa, and that just means Indian
wawa, Indian talk. Chinook wa is its other
name, right, but it's got wawa there. Chinook
wawa, Shawashwawa, or Chinook Jargon"
(Tony Johnson interview: 2002). |
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Fort Clatsop > Culture > Language
| "When I was younger, one person
that I spent quite a lot of time with would say "Now
I'm going to speak in Chinook," and then he'd talk. But what it took me
awhile
to figure out is that, in fact, he was speaking our Chinook Wawa, that
Chinook jargon language, and truthfully, I didn't really
have an interest in that at first, because there are so many misperceptions about
it. And so it took awhile
and then that language really grew on me.
"And you know, I’m just really proud of it now, and in fact I
spend a lot of time trying to end some of those misperceptions about the
language, because, well, it’s my interest" (Tony Johnson
interview: 2002). |
Tony Johnson |
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| Old Chinook and Chinook
Jargon |
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| "The Chinookan languages, are languages that originated on the Columbia
River from the Dalles on down to the mouth and up and down the coast a
little ways. Those are the original languages.
"Chinook Wawa developed out of a need for people to communicate that
didn't have a common language. Around the world there are languages like
this, called Pigeon and Creole languages. But this is a Pigeon that was
based on the Chinookan language, and that's how it started. Of course
this area was important for trading and a lot of different people passed
through here. Chinook Wawa was created by adults who needed to communicate
across their language barriers. The way we've learned the language-- the
way that it was used at my home here or with the tribes that I work for
— its use is purely an Indian language. It's used Indian to Indian,
and so that sound system and the grammar stay intact" (Tony Johnson
interview: 2002). |
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| Origins |
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| "We know is that it's a native Pigeon, that
is, most of it's words and most of it's grammar surely
come from the native languages around here. Then later
the European languages were added. Approximately ten
percent of Chinook Wawa is French. If you speak French,
you would immediately recognize the influence of French
on the language. We screw up parts of it, like, the
gender system that French and Spanish and other languages
have.
Tony Johnson describing old Chinook
language
and its influence on Chinook Wawa.
"Roughly another ten percent of it is English.
The English portion of Chinook Wawa probably came in
right at the beginning of fur trade, around the 1790's,
or 1800.
"You might argue the most important part of
the Chinookan language, although it's a very small part,
is from the west coast of Vancouver Island. A couple
of these words are words that really make the language
go. Without those words from the west coast of Vancouver
Island, the <unintelligible> words, there wouldn't
be, you couldn't use the language. So clearly that was
a very important part of it getting formed" (Tony Johnson
interview: 2002).
Tony
Johnson talking about
how Chinook language evolved. |
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| Website Referrals |
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| Tenas Wawa
http://tenaswawa.home.att.net/
" Tenas Wawa" was a semimonthly newsletter
about the Chinook Jargon published in Poulsbo, Washington, over four recent
years. Back issues and
selected articles currently appear here.
The Chinook Jargon
http://chinookjargon.home.att.net/
Wow! This site is a great resource for Chinook Jargon
information, it gives bibliographies (also listed on
our bibliography page) and lots of history and other
informative sections on the 'pidgin' language of the
Northwest Coast. |
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| Background:
K. Lugthart photo.
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