Ma-iskEm ukuk, pus ma-nanich "Las-kEmtEks kanawi-Ikta" Las-buk!

[Henry Kammler]

> George Fuller wrote "A history of the Northwest (with special emphasis on
> the Inland Empire".  It was published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1966.

... a time when derogatory remarks about native people were still commonplace
in "expert" books.

> >From page 40:  "The [Old Chinook] language was utterly impossible to the
> whites, and by 1850 the young Chinooks were discarding it for Chehalis and
> the jargon."  Assuming this were true, how would the shift to a couple of
> lowere-status languages have been motivated?

1) I can't imagine Chehalis being easier to learn (especially when you're a
Chinook) than Chinook proper. Easier for who, after all? Probably at that time
there were a lot of bilingual homes and the offspring may indeed have shifted
to other languages (where the Chehalis more populous at that time than the
Chinook proper?) - by being socialized in one of the other languages however
and not by "discarding" Chinook at a certain point in their lifespan.

2) Is there any evidence of persons acquiring CJ as their first language at
that time, as the above remark implies? Regarding lower status: at least CJ
served as a means to acquire prestige goods, either from whites or from other
First Nations.

Henry