Chinook Wawa pe Alaska Boston Wawa

[David Robertson]

Klahowyam, sikhs,

A brief discussion of the influence of Chinook Jargon on Alaskan
English...

Refer to Russell Tabbert's "Dictionary of Alaskan English" published in
Juneau by Denali in 1991.

Following you'll see a list of the CJ words I found in that book.  Those
preceded by a question mark are perhaps not due to Chinook Jargon's
presence.

-cheechako
-siwash, siwash dog, siwash harness
-kloochman, klooch
?-woodsman, woodswoman, brushman, Brush Indian, stickman, bushman
-potlatch, make potlatch, stuff potlatch, food potlatch
-siwash candy, squaw candy, salmon strips
-muck-a-muck (note also kow-kow from Eskimo/Hawaiian Jargon)
?-hoochinoo, hooch
-skookum house
?-king salmon
-chum salmon
-chinook salmon
-hooligan [eulachon]
?-mush
-chuck, salt chuck, skookum chuck
-skookum
-cultus
-wawa
-Boston
-King George

The author lists the words in this dictionary thematically.  Here are a
list of those of his categories in which I did not find any Chinook Jargon
influence:

I	Not Alaska[n]
III	Regions
IX	Clothing
XI	Mammals
XIII	Birds
XIV	Plants
XV	Climate
XVII	Mining
XVIII	Recreation

In other words, Chinook played a negligible role, we might infer, in areas
of vocabulary pertaining specifically to Alaska.

By contrast, in categories such as ethnic groups, fish (including many
migratory / anadromous species), and basic adjectives, an appreciable
quantity of words entered Alaskan English usage from Chinook Jargon.

This suggests to me that the Jargon in Alaska served in a rather limited
capacity, leaving less of a mark on the regional variety of English than
it did in other sections of the Pacific Northwest.  More specifically, CJ
looks to have been used for pan-NW words, while phenomena particular to
Alaska were given names in English or borrowed from the native languages.

Exceptions to the latter rule prove it, I feel.  For example, among some
Indian groups (interestingly including Athapaskans, it seems to me) in
Alaska, there were traditions equivalent to the "potlatch" common farther
south on the Pacific Coast.  Thus that term was used in Alaska as well,
and in fact extended for specific local usage e.g. among the Athapaskans
where the "stuff potlatch" (giving away of gifts proper) became
distinguished in regional English from the "food potlatch" (distribution
of quantities of food).

There are more good points to be brought up in this discussion, such as
the frequently noted differences between "native" usage and "white" usage.
(Of which the more I read, the more I feel as though I'd been born into
some kind of apartheid.  The Alaskan English I grew up with featured such
terms as "squaw candy" (salmon strips) and "cheechako", but the former is
listed as "used primarily by whites" and the latter subjectively sounds
very white to me.)  It would not surprise me to learn that Chinook Jargon,
in an partially and imperfectly learned version, was a mark of solidarity
among white newcomers to Alaska from the contiguous United States and from
Canada.

Furthermore, I suspect that use of Chinook Jargon was never even attempted
by whites for communication with Aleut and Inuit people.  Guidebooks of
the time of the American and Canadian influx to Alaska routinely propose
the Jargon for use with "Indians", as an "Indian" language.  It seems to
have been implicitly understood that these other two groups were not
Indians.

Let me note that I am reading Sally Thomason's and Terrence Kaufman's book
"Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics", which is
leading me to try carefully considering the sociological factors that were
involved in the bringing of CJ to Alaska.  I hope to discuss this at some
gretaer length, if there's interest, after I've had several hours of
sleep.

Good night!
Dave



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