Kirchoff, "Oregon East, Oregon West"

[Dave Robertson]

Kirchoff, Theodor.  1987 [ca. 1876?]  Oregon East, Oregon West.  [n.l.]
: Oregon Historical Society Press.  [Translation by Frederic Trautmann of: 
Reisebilder und Skizzen aus Amerika.]  

This a nice find for the student of Jargon.  

Starting with Chapter 3, "A Storekeeper's Day in The Dalles", Kirchoff 
recalls conversations with Indians in CJ.  He mostly presents the language 
in a German-style spelling that attempts to represent the sounds of the 
words, rather than using the standardized Anglo spellings.  

Here are some samples (capital E = his acute-accented "e"):

"Meike nan-nitsch sicks" (Look around, my friend).  

"Kant-sche okuk pczE pu-sis-se?" (How much is this green blanket?)

"hei-uh dschik-ka-ma" (very much money)

One item not specified as to language is the "word for dog ('Dschu! 
Dschu!')" used when kicking slow-moving Indian dogs out of the way.  I 
guess it could be from a language local to The Dalles area.  

-Dave R

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