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<font size=3>Hi. While hunting for some other reference I ran across this
excerpt from
"<a href="http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/ItemRecord/41556?id=9b8f82b82de95870">The
lost Atlantis and other ethnographic studies</a>," Wilson, Daniel,
Sir, 1816-1892. (Edinburgh : D. Douglas, 1892.) (pp. 227-8) on
Canadiana.org describing the extent of sign usage in Jargon (see second
paragraph, which break I inserted myself to make it more easily found).
I'd be most interested in further documentation of the sign component of
Jargon.<br><br>
Somewhat tangentially (and paradoxically), further below see a paragraph
from
"<a href="http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/ItemRecord/26366?id=9b8f82b82de95870">Introduction
to the study of sign language among the North American Indians: as
illustrating the gesture speech of mankind</a>," Mallery, Garrick,
1831-1894. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of Ethnology. (Washington :
G.P.O., 1880.) (p. 12), which refers to the <i>decline</i> of sign usage
by the Kalapuyas as the Jargon came into broader use.<br>
_____________________________<br><br>
Vocabularies of the Oregon or Chinook jargon have been repeatedly
published since 1838, when the Rev. Samuel Parker made the first attempt
to reduce it to writing. But it is necessarily in an unstable condition,
with local variations and a changing vocabulary. The latest <i>Dictionary
of the Chinook Jargon, or Trade Language of Oregon, </i>is that of Mr.
George Gibbs, published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1863, and
includes nearly five hundred words. When studied in all its bearings, it
is a singularly interesting example of the effort at the development of a
means of intercommunication among such a strange gathering of
heterogeneous races. In an analysis of the various sources of its
vocabulary, Mr. Gibbs assigns about two-fifths of the words to the
Chinook and Clatsop languages. But in this he includes one of the most
characteristic elements of the jargon. The representatives of so many
widely dissimilar peoples, in their efforts at mutual communication,
naturally resorted to diverse forms of imitation; foremost among which
was onomatopoeia. There are such mimetic words as <i>he-he,
</i>“laughter”; <i>hoh-hoh, </i>“to cough”; <i>tish-tish, </i>“to drive”;
<i>lip-lip, </i>“to boil”; <i>poh, </i>“to blow out”; <i>tik-tik, </i>“a
watch”; <i>tin-lin </i>or <i>ting-ling, </i>“a bell”; <i>tum-tum,
</i>“the heart,” from its pulsation; and hence a number of modifications
in which the heart is used as equivalent to mind ‘or will, etc. Again,
varying intonations are resorted to in order to express different shades
of meaning, as <i>sey-yaw, </i>“far off,” in which the first syllable is
lengthened out according to the idea of greater or less distance
indicated. Many of their words, as in all interjectional utterances,
depend for their specific meaning on the intonations of the speaker. Such
utterances play so small a part in our own speech, that we are apt to
overlook the force of the interrogative, affirmative, and negative tones,
and even the change of meaning that is often produced. by the transfer of
emphasis from one to another word.<sup>1 <br><br>
</sup><x-tab> </x-tab>But
with such an imperfect means of intercommunication as the trade jargon,
there is a constant motive not only to help out the meaning by expressive
intonation, but also by signs or gesture-language. “A horse,” for
example, is <i>kuatan; </i>but “riding” or “on horseback” is expressed by
accompanying the word with the gesture of two fingers placed astride over
the other hand. <i>Tenas </i>is “little” or “a child,"-in the
latter case, accompanied by the gesture suggestive of its size,-or it
may mean “an infant,” by the first syllable being prolonged to indicate
that it is very small. In addition to all this, words are borrowed from
all sources; and the miscellaneous vocabulary is completed from English,
French, Cree, Ojibway, Nootka, Chibalis, Nisqually, Kalapuy, and other
tongues.<br><br>
</font><font size=2><b><i>1 </i></b>The Rev. Mark Pattison, according to
one biographer, Mr. Althaus, had cultivated a habit of reticence, till it
became one of his most marked characteristics. His usual response to any
remark was “Ah”; but his biographer adds: “It was interesting to observe
of ‘what a variety of shades of meaning that characteristic ejaculation
‘Ah’ was capable. Many times it was his sole answer. Mostly it signified
that something had aroused his interest ; sometimes it conveyed approval,
sometimes surprise, sometimes doubt; sometimes it was said in a ‘way that
indicated he did not wish to express himself on the point in
question.”<br>
</font><font size=3>_____________________<br><br>
Many instances are shown of the discontinuance of
gesture-speech with no development in the native language of the
gesturers, but from the invention for intercommunication of one used in
common. The Kalapuyas of Southern Oregon until recently used a
sign-language, but have gradually adopted for foreign intercourse the
composite tongue, commonly called the Tsinuk or Chinook jargon, which
probably arose for trade purposes on the Columbia River before the advent
of Europeans, founded on the Tsinuk, Tsihali, Nutka, &c., but now
enriched by English and French terms, and have nearly forgotten their old
signs. The prevalence of this mongrel speech, originating in the same
causes that produced the pigeon-English. or lingua-franca of the Orient,
explains the marked scantness of sign-language among the tribes, of the
Northwest coast. No explanation is needed for the disuse of that mode of
communication when the one of surrounding civilization is recognized as
necessary or important to be acquired, and gradually becomes known as the
best common medium, even before it is actually spoken by many individuals
of the several tribes.<br>
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