Evening star., 1898-11-19
THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE
Queer Jargon Spoken Among the Pacific
Coast Indians.
Grew Up Necessities Arose-Some
Words and Where They Had
Their Origin.
from Chambers' Journal

In that vast district lying between the
Rocky mountains and the Pacific. from San
Franc1sco hay nearly up o Alaska, of which
large part was then generally known as
Oregon-a term now applied to one of the
states OF America lying between California
and washington dwelt many tribes of In
dlans, all or the same race, but speaking no
less than twelve absolutely distinct Ian
suages, and these languages were again di-
Vlded up into dialects, may of them so diff
ferent as to render the speakers of ole
quite unintelligible to their nelghbors on
the other side of range of hills who spoke
another. History relates that this ignor-
ance of each others tongue led to much
hghung, and was frequently the cause OF
the herce mtertribal wars that were then
almost continuously waging. The difficulty
or the white man who arrived to trade
may be easily imagined. A sailor dealing
with natives soon picks up few of the
Simplest words, and rapidly makes progress
cut MS powers are Sorely taxed when he
sails out OF the first river he strikes and
Into the next, thirty miles off, and finds
tldt the natives there do not understand
the words he picked up at his first point of
arrival This difficulty SO hampered the
early traders that common language a
Voiapuk, was started And this common
Ingo Is now almost a complete language,
and is spoken by natives all over that huge
country which used to be known as Oregon,
and is called the Chinook iargou," or "Ore-
gon trade language"
This jargon was not made to order and
taught in the schools, but gradually grew
up as necessities arose, until now at length
1t has arrived at the dignity of having a
dictionary printed all to itself, and out of
It's precocity it has produced a framework
" hich may some day arrive at the dignity
of a grammar. The course of its growth is
interesting.
Nootka sound, on the west coast of Van
tha hct
ships trading to this coast laid their courses
ana mere the Jargon was Graded. And we
ma, as might be expected, that many of its
most useful words are culed from the tribe
that dwelt in that wild and wet district
such as kloshe. good hyas and tenas
large" and small" kumtuks, Ito under
stand: mahook, Ito trade and waWa Ito
taik-these being just the kind of words
that would be wanted at first BY degrees
other words-Words that had a character of
their own-from other tribes were added.
Ferhaps 1t would be fairer to say that the
NordS added from time to time were such
as could be pronounced by Europeans The
lhdian languages are uncOuth and unpro-
IlouhCeapIe 10 any one except perhaps a
Meishman The names of many articles of
European make which came in the Way of
trade and for which there could clearly be
no native word, were adopted either whole
or In such form as to fit the curves of a ma
i've mouth Bed and boat" We're easy,
out cold becomes cole, dry div and
that very difficult word "handkerchief'
the gaudy red or yellow one SO much priced
by the dusky beauties, had to get itself un-
derstood as hakatshum, a name not alto
sether unlike that applied to the same ar
tlcle by Europeans of tender age The his
torical date of the origin of the language
IS shown by the word for "Englishman,"
English, is king George man." and distin-
cuisines US from our Yankee cousin, who,
whether he hailed from north or south or
east or west of his vast territory, is always
Known as a Boston man.
Meanwhile another element crept in
Across the great prairies of Manitoba and
the northwest over the peaks and through
the gorges of the Rockies, came the trapper
OF the Hudson Bay Company the French
Canadian voyageur, man accustomed to
zeal with Indians, and his individuality is
strongly impressed into the jargon which
adopted ado his words with the article attached.
Thus. under the letter t. in the Chinook
vocabulary, We find that nearly all the
words are French: Lassiet, "a plate:" Ia
SShase, chair lemahto, hammer leplet
lie pctre), priest" Caipeen "a rifle and
SlWash, indian are from the French car
ablne and savage. The imitation of sounds
almost an Indians chief instinct has pro-
duced number of words-tintin, "a bell:''
iktik, "a watch" and, most curious of all
tumtum, the heart" mot that part of the
human anatomy subject to periodical pains
during childhood which it might be EXPECT
ed to mean. The word has also come to
chako hyu snass-'It is my heart q Think
that big rain Is coming
The origin of many of the words is un-
known, and these were probably the result
OF some passing event but many grew from
very strange causes. "Pelton'' means ~
fool" and is also an adjective, foolish
and it had its origin in this way: In the
very early days there was a half-witted
man named Pelton. who did strange things,
living at a settlement near the mouth OF
the Columbia river, and, as he was well
known, any strange conduct on the part of
any one came to be reported as "All the
same Pelton." In spite of his lack of wit.
Mr.. Pelton is probably the only one of that
settlement whose name will be handed down
to posterity. In 1904 an expedition under
two well-known travellers, Messrs Lewis
and CLARKE visited the coast and the salu-
tation, Clarke. how are you?' is now the
familiar "Clahoiya?" ("How do you do?')
In 1863 a dictionary of the jargon by
George Gibbs was published by the Smith
sonian institution at Washington, contain
ing about 800 words, classified as follows:
Chinook, 221; French, "a; English, 81; Sal
ish, 80; Nootka, "a; the rest being obscure,
unknown or derived from imitation. 1t is a
little strange that there is not one Russian
word to be found.