Pacific Northwest (Interior and Coast): Alaska, The Yukon, British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Northern California
Native speakers
1 (2013)[1]
Language family
Mainly Wakashan (Nootka Jargon), Chinookan, and Indo-European (Germanic and Italic)
Writing system
De facto Latin, historically Duployan; currently standardized IPA-based orthography
Official status
Official language in
De facto in Pacific Northwest until about 1920
Language codes
ISO 639-2
chn
ISO 639-3
chn
Glottolog
pidg1254 (pidgin) chin1272 (creole)
ELP
Chinook Wawa
Chinook Jargon is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Chinook Jargon (Chinuk Wawa or Chinook Wawa, also known simply as Chinook or Jargon) is a language originating as a pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. It spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then to British Columbia and parts of Alaska, Northern California, Idaho and Montana. It sometimes took on the characteristics of a creole language.[2] It is partly descended from the Chinook language, upon which much of its vocabulary is based.[3]
Reflecting its origins in early trade transactions, approximately 15 percent of its lexicon is French. It also makes use of English loan words and those of other language systems. Its entire written form is in the Duployan shorthand developed by French priest Émile Duployé.
Many words from Chinook Jargon remain in common use in the Western United States and British Columbia. It has been described as part of a multicultural heritage shared by the modern inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest. The total number of Jargon words in published lexicons is in the hundreds.[4] It has a simple grammatical system. In Chinook Jargon, the consonant /r/ is rare. Such English and French loan words as rice and merci, for instance, have changed after being adopted to the Jargon, to lays and mahsi, respectively.
^Grant, Anthony (2013). "Chinuk Wawa structure dataset". Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
^Lang, George (2008). Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon. Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 9780774815260.
^"Chinook Jargon". Yinka Dene Language Institute. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
^Gibbs, George (1863). "Dictionary of the Chinook Language, or, Trade Language of Oregon" (PDF) (Abridged ed.). New York: Cramoisy Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 4, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012 – via University of Washington Library.
ChinookJargon (Chinuk Wawa or Chinook Wawa, also known simply as Chinook or Jargon) is a language originating as a pidgin trade language in the Pacific...
pidgins and creole languages. For example, the ChinookJargon was a pidgin. Although technical jargon's primary purpose is to aid technical communication...
Columbia River by Chinook peoples ChinookJargon, a language originating as a pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest Lower Chinook, a Chinookan language...
"Pidgin". The term jargon has also been used to refer to pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins, such as ChinookJargon. In this context, linguists...
encountered the Chinook Tribe on the lower Columbia. The term "Chinook" also has a wider meaning in reference to the ChinookJargon, which is based on...
used in Grand Ronde Jargon meaning "anything native or Indian"; by contrast, they consider siwash to be defamatory. The ChinookJargon term for a native...
Tillicum or Tilikum is a word in ChinookJargon that means people, family, tribe, and relatives, and may refer to: Tilikum Crossing, a bridge in Portland...
Ellis Ryan (1860?–1934) used Chinook words and phrases in her writing.[citation needed] According to Nard Jones, ChinookJargon was still in use in Seattle...
predominant variety of ChinookJargon spoken, and as such a single ChinookJargon word might be borrowed from speakers of different ChinookJargon dialects with...
The following is a listing of placenames from the ChinookJargon, generally from the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, the Canadian Yukon...
Skookum is a ChinookJargon word that has historical use in the Pacific Northwest. It has a range of meanings, commonly associated with an English translation...
for writing English, German, Spanish, Romanian, Latin, Danish, and ChinookJargon. The Duployan stenography is classified as a geometric, alphabetic stenography...
ChinookJargon is a trade language and was once used throughout much of the Pacific Northwest. Many place names in the area come from the Chinook Jargon...
area and people of all different mother tongues and nationalities used ChinookJargon (along with English and French) to communicate with each other. Until...
incorporated into ChinookJargon as kickwillie. Kick willy, kickwillie, or keekwulee are the spelling variations of the ChinookJargon word for "beneath"...
the iterative suffix -č) via ChinookJargon. Salal (definition) from Chinook Trade Jargon [səˈlæl], from Lower Chinook salál. Saguaro (definition) via...
English "wow." For the scores of BC placenames from the ChinookJargon, see List of ChinookJargon place names. Ahnuhati River: "where the humpback salmon...
Americans began communicating using ChinookJargon, the trade language that had developed earlier. The ChinookJargon was widely spoken throughout the Northwest...
Haida JargonChinookJargon Medny Aleut language Thomas, Edward Harper (1935). Chinook: A History and Dictionary of the NorthWest Coast Trade Jargon: The...
ChinookJargon arose as a trading language incorporating both Chinookan and Wakashan vocabulary. Recent attempts to keep ChinookJargon or Chinook Wawa...
At-sar-kal in a map sketched by engineer Abiel W. Tinkham;: 10 and the ChinookJargon name, Hyas Chuck ("great/large water"), was also used. Other English...
bridged the language barrier with an intertribal trade language called ChinookJargon. Today, the majority is of the opinion that the tribal term "Cowlitz"...
of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains (†). ChinookJargon Shoalwater (also known as Chinook proper), extinct (†) since the 1930s. Shoalwater was...
located entirely within the state. The name Skookumchuck derives from ChinookJargon: in this context, "rapids". The word skookum means "strong", and chuck...
Global Information