Alsea CJ as "pidgin"; more than one CJ?

[Dave Robertson]

Lhush chxi pulakli, Mike pi khanawi-lhaksta,

Lhush pus ma wawa ukuk, bEt weyk-qhata pus nayka wawa "khapit-ixt
Chinuk-wawa"!  XawqElh.  Weyk-qhantsi.  Pi dret skukum na tiki wawa, hilu
ixt "manak'i dret" Chinuk-wawa.

Pus ntsayka tiki munk buk pus tEnEs-wawa (dictionary), k'oy' pus ntsa tl'ap
tl'unas-ixt manak'i dret Chinuk-wawa.  BEt nawitka, khEltEsh ntsa kEmtEks
wawa:  ukuk tilxam yakwa, lhush pus lhaska Chinuk-wawa alta khakwa ntsayka
"dret" (norm) Chinuk-wawa.  Pi ukuk tilxam khapa', alta ntsa wawa lhaska
Chinuk-wawa "wik dret" (nonstandard) or Xluyma.

BEt na hay-wawa ukuk:  Weyk-lhaksta ya kEmtEks dret wawa ikta Chinuk lhush,
pi ikta Chinuk khEltEsh.

Pus lhaksta ya wawa, o, ukuk Chinuk-wawa "manak'i khakwa pidgin", alta ukuk
khEltEsh dret khakwa-pus wawa "weyk dret creole ukuk Chinuk".  Khakwa nayka
tEmtEm.  Qhantsi lhaksta ya wawa khakwa, na tEmtEm yaka XumXum alaxti khakwa
"scientific description".  Weyk khakwa-pus wawa "uk tilxam lhas Chinuk dret
t'ilimuksh"!

Alaxti lhush pus wEXt-ikta nayka wawa, Alsea tilxam lhas ili7i weyk milhayt
khapa dret katsEk qha tilxam anqati lhas hay-wawa Chinuk-wawa.  Nawitka,
tEnEs-hayu Alsea tilxam lhas lhatwa khapa Siletz pi Grand Ronde
shawash-ili7i.  BEt ukuk weyk dret khakwa-pus khanawi Alsea lhas kEmtEks
dret lhush Chinuk-wawa.

Ikta ma tEmtEm?
Dave

(Summary:  At least in linguistic science, it's useful to evaluate any
example of a contact language for its status on a scale from jargon through
pidgin to creole, with many possible gradations among these reference
points.  Alsea people, though Oregonians, did not live in the "heartland" of
Chinuk-wawa, though some of them did migrate to the Siletz and Grand Ronde
reservations--which *then* became foci of development of the Jargon.  As
with any contact idiom, Chinuk-wawa was not a very standardized language,
and for reasons including the length of an ethnic group's prior exposure to
Chinuk, was recorded as spoken in many varieties.)

"Mike Cleven" <mike_cleven at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Once again we seem to be running into a distinction between "fluent
> Chinuk-wawa" and "a more pidgin variety"; and on this occasion in the
> Oregonian heartland of the Chinuk-wawa, not in the Flathead district or
> another remote peripheral region of Jargon usage.  And please note that
this
> is not as defined by speakers, but rather as qualified by latter-day
> analysis, which seems to be setting apart "correct" Jargon from a "more
> pidgin variety".  Isn't it "all one wawa" - or not?
>
> MC