A failure of communication--just knowing where to look

[Jeffrey Kopp]

On Sat, 30 Nov 2002 20:10:39 -0800, Nadja Adolf <yakimabelle at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>> And as Jeff has pointed out, there is quite a bit
>> available on the net. I think
>> someone who has thoroughly gone through the Melville
>> Jacobs collection of texts
>> (there should be no problem to exchange photocopies)
>> will already have a good
>> working command of CJ.
>
>Ah, but where does one obtain these photocopies? And
>at what price?

It's free (just your paper and ink.)

Melville Jacobs' "Texts in Chinook Jargon" includes several stories by Victoria Howard, described as a "Clackamas Upper Chinook,"  and John Hudson, a "Santiam Kalapuya," recorded in the early 1930s, and can be viewed on-line.  I think these closely resemble GR usage of that era, though I am given to understand Ms. Howard's speech was unusually elaborate and bears more hints of "Old Chinook."  See http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/htmldoc.exe?CISOROOT=/lctext&CISOPTR=1584  His orthography is complicated (it's incomprehensible to me) but carefully detailed, and is therefore a reference valued by linguists.

A photocopy of this (made from the bound journal) has been floating around the group for some time, but the copy I received is unreadably distorted in the Jargon half on a couple pages, and I heard someone's was too, so I image the common source of these copies bears the same defect.  However, the images on the Web site (apparently scanned from microfilm) are fine.

Note these are page images set into frames with a navigation bar on the left.  (So, Nadja, you might have to "borrow" a Windows computer to see it.)  Click on the right frame (on the page image), then pull down "print" and print the images (one at a time) from your browser.

If the UW has maintained the copyright on this pub, it hasn't yet fallen into public domain.  However, there should be no problem printing copies off their Web site for personal use.

As far as I know, Jim's book manuscript is the only publicly available resource incorporating current GR usage.  He's kept with the Roman alphabet but has done a beautiful job of constructing an accurate orthography which is layman-readable. It's in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format; you can view it with the free downloadable Acrobat Reader.  See http://adisoft-inc.com/chinookbook/  However, he's renamed some of the files since the links on that page were set up (he's still working on the book), so go to http://www.adisoft-inc.com/chinookbook/PDFs/ and view the raw directory.  You can download the files (broken into chapters) from there.  (Some HP inkjet printer drivers have trouble with Acrobat's output; try a few pages first, and if it comes out with chunks missing, fiddle with Acrobat's print settings--"print as image" or some such will probably do it.)  He's put a lot of work into this; buy the book when it gets into print.  (Hey--admire my maps in there, too.)

A couple of papers are accessible via my site (at Canadiana.org) besides the dictionaries, including Myron Eells' "The Chinook Jargon" (The American Anthropologist, Vol. VII (July 1894), 300-312).  See http://chinookjargon.home.attbi.com/dictnote.htm  The Canadiana images are single page microfilm scans presented individually; while they can be browsed conveniently on-line, they must be printed one at a time.  Tip: Right click on the image, select "view image" and you'll get the bare image for a tidier printout.  Experiment with their Web page's page-size gizmos until you find one which will fill a page on your printer nicely.

I do have "El Comancho" Phillips' 1913 "Chinook Book" on my site in HTML (in several sections), which load quickly and can easily be printed.  His orthography is crude but it his colorful writing is fun to read, and seems to be more original than most dictionaries of that era. (It appears to be based mostly on his personal fluency in communicating frequently with local Natives, albeit with reference to the common works).  He was a northern Washingtonian, though, so that of course is some ways from the GR.

(This hasn't been double-proofed yet, so if any of you have some time to kill, let me know.) (Same for my online version of the NW excerpts of Swanton.)  (I regrettably haven't had a chance to start on Demers yet.)

More is available by mail order:

Henry Zenk's landmark 1984 paper, Chinook Jargon And Native Cultural Persistence In The Grand Ronde Indian Community, 1856-1907: A Special Case Of Creolization (Sociolinguistics, Ethnography Of Speaking). Zenk, Henry Benjamin, Phd. (University Of Oregon, 1984. 329 pp.),can be ordered from University Microform International for about $30--not much more expensive and far more convenient than making your own copy from a borrowed one (and I think he gets a small, well-deserved royalty). Go here, select your order method, and then search on "Zenk" (his is part-way down a short page):  http://wwwlib.umi.com/dxweb/neworder

Of course, Duane Pasco's tutorial book and tape remain available for a very reasonable price.  It's well-researched, drawn from a number of sources, and reflects his personal knowledge of the more northern Northwest's usage.  See http://tenaswawa.home.attbi.com/bookstore.htm

Regards,

Jeff
"Jargon Liberation Front"