What was the range of Chinook Jargon?

[mcdonald at isn.net]

At 07:01 PM 7/23/98 -0700, Mike Cleven wrote:
>[deletia]
>I'm
>not sure whether it lasted longer as a "common tongue" on the US side or
>the British/Canadian side; there was much more non-native influx into =
the
>American Northwest at an earlier date than there was in BC, but on the
>other hand most of the Jargon publications and continuing activity and
>awareness of the Jargon seems to be on the US side.
[deletia]
>... it survived in the hinterland a lot longer than it did in the city,
>where the newcomers viewed it with disdain (one reason why the old-time
>families spoke it at home).  Earlier on, it was a given that residents =
of
>Gastown or any of the other small communities of the colony/province, or=
 of
>either of the capitals (Victoria or New West) would speak Jargon to each
>other, even though they might both have the same native tongue (Gastown =
and
>other lumber and mining camps were notoriously polyglot).

It's unfortunate that the Chinook Jargon didn't manage to successfully
"creolize", that is, to become a high-prestige language, composed -- as
Chinook Jargon was -- of elements from numerous different, often widely
variant languages. Doubtless, there were few attempts to establish
Chinook Jargon as anythign more than an ephemeral proto-creole(?) on
either side of the border.


>The only surviving _group_ that we are aware of who continue to use =
Jargon
>are indeed natives, i.e. the Grande Ronde community in Washington, and
>there are only a few scattered speakers of it remaining in other =
regions.

Is the Grande Ronge community home to a stable Chinook Jargon speech
community, a community where Chinook Jargon is the everyday language, or
is Chinook Jargon in retreat everywhere in its former range?
__________________________________________________________________

 R.F. McDonald
 rmcdonald at upei.ca
 Home E-mail: mcdonald at isn.net
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 the same God?"
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     - Voltaire, from Treatise on Tolerance, 1763
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