Costello "The Siwash"

[Dave Robertson]

J.A. [Joseph Allen] Costello. 1895.  "The Siwash, their life, legends, and
tales: Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest".  Seattle: Calvert.

www.secstate.wa.gov/history/images/publications/SL_costellosiwash/SL_costellosiwash_025_0001.txt


"CHAPTER VI. 
 THE CHINOOK LA LANG. 
 There is danger of falling into error concerning the Chinook jargon, by con- 
fusing it with the intricate language of a tribe of that name. On the other 
hand, people are apt to make the mistake of Imputing its mventmn to a few of 
the Hudsons Bay company's factors at Astoria. 
The Chinook jargon was and is yet employed by the white people in their 
dealings with the natives, as well as by the natives among themselves. It is 
spoken all over  Vashington, Oregon, a portmn of Idaho and the whole length 
of Vancouver island. Like other languages formed for convemence it is m all 
probability a gradual growth. There seems but little doubt that the rudi- 
ments of it first existed among the natives themselves and that the trappers
and 
hunters adopted it and improved upon it to facilitate intercourse with the 
natives. Slowly it was brought to its present state. 
When Lew s and Clark reached the coast in I8o6, the jargon seems to have 
already assumed a fixed shape. It was extensively quoted by those explorers. 
But no English or French words of which it now contains so many, seem to 
have been added after the expedition sent out by John Jacob Astor reached the 
coast. The words of the original jargon have been modified to a large extent 
however. They have been so changed as to eliminate much of the harsh 
 :uttural unpronounceable native crackling, thus forming a speech far more 
smtable to all. In the same manner, some of the English sounds such as " f" 
and " r," which are so troublesome to the native were either dropped or 
changed to "p" and " 1," and all unnecessary grammatical forms have been 
eradicated. Even the Chinook jargon is not without its dialects. There are 
many words used at Victoria that are not used at Seattle or at the mouth of the 
Columbia. This fact may be accounted for in various ways, but chiefly by the 
introduction of foreign words. Thus an Indian sees some object that is un- 
familiar to him and asks to know the name of it. The trader tells him a name 
and with him it continues to be the name of the article ever afterward. For 
example bread, is always biscuit ; whisky  s paih-water, or m some localities, 
paih-chuck, a cat  s expressed as a puss-puss, an American  s a Boston-man, 
and a Britisher a King-George-man. However, m different localities the 
things may be named qmte differently."

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