Two forms of Chinook Jargon

[Duane Pasco]

I  am new to this web site, but I have read quite a few of the e-mails back and forth 
from various individuals.
     I was introduced to Chinook Jargon as a child in Alaska during the 1930's. There 
seemed to be a lot of it in use at that time and in that place. As I was learning 
English, I also heard Chinook Jargon and was  unaware that the Chinook words I 
was learning were not part of English until much later, after moving to the Seattle 
area at the start of the second world war. 
     I have lived and worked all over the Northwest coast, from Puget Sound to Alaska 
and while it's very rare now to find a speaker of Chinook Jargon who hasn't learned 
it from a book, I have over the years run into a few. I  have found that aside from 
some slight variation in accent the form of Chinook Jargon that has been prevalent 
throughout this area is one and the same.
    However, the form of this speech is quite different from that spoken on the Grande 
Ronde Reservation, which actually seems to approach an actual language, for there 
is a much greater vocabulary. Another difference is the abbreviation of some words, 
especially pronouns. 
     I am not fluent in the Grande Ronde Chinook jargon, but of the litttle I have heard  
and  read of it I think it a beautiful thing. The way that it came about is fascinating and 
can be read in the work of Henry Zenks publication. The work that Tony Johnson 
and he are doing to teach and preserve it are worthwhile and quite comendable.
     The form of Chinook Jargon that is so much a part of the history of the greater 
Northwest, however is  much simpler and and really does contain no more than 300 
words,  many of which are of corrupted English, French and various Native 
terminology. Many of the words of French origin pertain to farming and for the most 
part were not in common use in my time. 
     I have conversed in Chinook Jargon with Natives and Non-Natives from Seattle to 
Alaska, including the interior of Washington and British Columbia and have found 
that  there is uniformity in vocabulary and grammar and approximately fifty individual 
words make up a normal conversation.
      Duane Pasco
     

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