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Chinook Jargon

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a relatively simple trade language used by the Indians of the Pacific Coast in their dealings with whites and Indians of other tribes, based on the language of the Chinook Indians; words from Nootka, Salish, French, English, and other languages were adapted to the jargon.

See: Chinook(def. 2),jargon,Siwash tongue,skookum,tillicum ,trade jargon

Quotations

1849

[Besides the foregoing language [Chinookan], there is another lingo, or rather mixed dialect, spoken by the Chinook and other neighbouring tribes; which is generally used in their intercourse with the white.]

1862

The southern tribes, as a rule, understand the Chinook jargon, in which almost all the intercourse between Indians and whites is at present carried on.

1958

Actually, the Chinook jargon was older than any of the white men. Neither the traders nor missionaries invented it, but both expanded the vocabulary and extended its use.

1964

. . . Father J. M. Le Jeune . . . printed books and the weekly journal "Kamloops Wawa" in Chinook jargon.