"Language Files" 7th edition (linguistics textbook): Chinook Jargon

[David Robertson of Chinook]

Klahowya konaway klaksta kopaaa (Hello, everyone out there),

For a much-needed break from learning how to use the Linguist's Shoebox
program, here I'll give a promised second installment from "Language
Files", edited by Nick Cipollone, Steven Hartman Keiser, and Shravan
Vasishth, published by Ohio State University Press, Columbus, OH, 1998.

They have this to say, using CJ by way of an example, about pidgin and
creole languages (page 356):

    "[T]wo distinct outcomes of language contact are the creation of pidgin
languages and creole languages.  A pidgin language typically arises in a
setting whree two or more peoples come together for the purposes of trade.
If the traders do not share a common language for communication, they might
create a simplified, yet distinct language, a pidgin, to help facilitate
trading.  An example of such a trade pidgin is Chinook Jargon, a pidgin
spoken by Native American, British, and French traders in the Pacific
Northwest in the nineteenth century.  Whereas pidgins are not the primray
languages of their users creole languages arise in situations where the
speakers in contact are in need of a common, primary means of
communication.  This characterizes plantation settings on the Caribbean
islands and in the southern United States...Since the common
language...created [is] used for a wide range of communicative purposes,
not just for the facilitation of trade as in the case of pidgins, this
contact situation [leads] to the development of creole languages."

In this light it is interesting to read in the following section, "Pidgin
Languages" (page 358) that

     "Chinook Jargon was a pidgin language spoken during the second half of
the nineteenth century in Canada and the northwestern United States.  There
are still a few speakers of Chinook Jargon, but the language is nearly
extinct.  It was used as a trade language among several Native American
groups and was also learned by Europeans who began to settle in the
Northwest.  It is presumed that Chinook Jargon predates European
settlement.  It certainly shows little or no European influence.  Chinook
Jargon's main source of vocabulary was Lower Chinook, and many of the
features of Chinook Jargon grammar clearly are derived from other Native
American languages that played a role in its formation.  One of the most
interesting aspects of Chinook Jargon grammar is its rich and complex
consonant inventory, a feature found frequently among the input languages
but rarely among the languages of the world and not at all among other
pigdins.  Examples of the complexity of Chinook Jargon phonology include
its numerous secondary articulations, such as glottalized stops [p' t' k'
kw' q' qw' c' ch']and labialized back consonants [kw qw khw qhw kw' qw'];
its clusters consisting of two stop consonants [e.g. tk in tkop]; and its
rare phonemes, such as lateral obstruents [lh tlh tl'], a velar and post-
velar series of stops [k kw kh k' kw' khw versus q qw qh q' qw' qhw], and a
glottal stop phoneme [7].  These examples provide strong evidence of the
substratum influence on pidgin formation."  [Examples provided by Dave.]

It is also very interesting that in the same section, Tok Pisin, Solomon
Islands Pijin, and Cameroon Pidgin English are all shown as examples
of "pidgins" when in fact they each have native speakers, in my
understanding, and thus would be properly called "creoles" in the authors'
definition.

Finally, it strikes me as odd that you'll find "Chinook Jargon" listed only
the (general) index of the book, and not in the "Language Index"!

But as I've said before, this book does overall constitute an excellent
introduction to the study of linguistics.  With its help, you could read
many of the research papers that have been written on Chinook Jargon.

Best wishes,
Dave