A Historical Analysis of the Record of Chinuk Wawa

Baejamin Novak University of Oregon Linguistics 407 Native Languages of Oregon Spring 2013 Term Paper

Introduction
Record of Chinuk Wawa dates back to George Gibbs journal of lexical items recorded over 150 years ago (Gibbs 1855); while mentionings of the Language and a trade language in the Pacific Northwest predate Gibbs work. The most recent Chinuk Wawa research includes contemporary work by Scott DeLancey with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and R. James Holton, who publishes and maintains the Wawa Press. With exhaustive research, one can find a wealth of linguistic and ethnographic data on Chinuk Wawa; in this paper I will be highlighting research that shows the progression in methodologies employed to record Chinuk Wawa. To simplify the process of writing this diachronic overview, I chose documents which exemplify three (3) periods in record of Chinuk Wawa: - Period One: the Recording of Lexical Items - Period Two: the Development of Academic Interest - Period Three: Chinuk Wawa Online I would like to make a brief apology to those whose work I will be using, similarly, to those whose work I chose to exclude. These periods merely provide a framwork; I will be taking some liberties and simplifying the work of linguists who tirelessly helped record and preserve Chinuk Wawa. To all of those researchers, I extend a Masie shiks and proceed from a place of respect and appreciation.

A Description of Chinuk Wawa

Also known as Chinook Jargon, Lelang and Wawa, Chinook Wawa is a pidgin language found in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States up into Yukon Territory and down into what is now Northern California. (Lang, 2008) Originally used as a language of trade (a pidgin), estimates suggest that sometime in the mid-1900s there were over 100,000 speakers of Chinuk Wawa. (Jones, 1972) About 55% of lexical items in Chinuk Wawa are from the original Chinuk language; Nootkan, English and French each constitute about 10%, while the remainder is drawn from other sources. A shorthand was developed for record taking and receipt writing, and merchants and traders found the language highly efficient and accessible. (Jones, 1972)

Period One: the Recording of Lexical Items

The earliest records of Chinuk Wawa appear around 1854 when George Gibbs began recording lexical items to assist with his geological surveys. (Gibbs, 1854) Gibbs began work for the Northern Railroad Survey in 1853 studying geological data to determine the plausibility of future railways. After a few short years of contact, Gibbs began studying the native languages in an attempt to facilitate treaty making; multiple positions in that capacity then followed. In 1860 while working for The Northwest Boundary Survey, Gibbs made observations that, incongruent with the Hudsons Bay Companys information, there was a dramatic decline in native populations. (Gibbs, 1854) Gibbs kept extensive documentation of Chinuk Wawa lexical items which he later compiled and annotated leaving us with the first dictionary of Chinuk Wawa. Titled A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, or Trade Language of Oregon., Gibbs later traveled to

Washington DC to begin his formal study of Native American languages, bringing his documents with him. They now reside with the Smithsonian Institutions special collections catalogue. The dictionary is split into two parts, Part I. Chinook-English and Part II. EnglishChinook. For a majority of the entries, data is presented as such:

(1) Ca-po, n. French, CAPOT. A Coat. Gibbs was thorough in most of his entries, documenting a phonetic spelling, the part of speech, the (hypothesized) language of origin, as well as the etymological root; the entries are quite comprehensive for dictionary documentation. Further analysis asserts that Gibbs had an even deeper understanding of linguistic anomalies occurring in Chinuk Wawa. (2) Bit, or Mit, n. English, BIT. A dime or shilling. Kun sih, Kan-sih, adv. Chinook, KUNSE`UKH. How many, to count These suggest that Gibbs was recording allomorphs; less likely (yet possibly) these were stylistic choices that may have stemmed from stable variables. In either case, it is evident that Gibbs was aware of, and thought it valuable to record these differences in pronunciation. One entry in particular displays the ingenuity of Chinuk Wawa speakers. Due to the introduction of new concepts into the environment semantic widening occurred on a large scale, Gibbs did well to make note of this: (3) Kul-lagh, or Kul-lagh-an, n. Chihalis, KULLAKH; Lummi, KULLUKAHN. A fence; a corral, or inclosure. Kullagh stick, fence rails. In the original, it meant the stockade with which Indian houses are often surrounded. Furthermore, idiomatic expressions were formed, creating the most ingenuitive features of Chinuk Wawa (as exemplified in 4). (4) De-la`te, or De-le`tt, adj. adv. French, DROITE. Straight; direct; without equivocation. Ex. Klatawa delett, go straight; delett wauwau, tell the truth. The idiom delett wauwau translates literally to tell it straight, a phrase which is not far from the English idiom give it to me straight, featuring the French borrowing droite. Almost 50 years following Gibbs initial efforts to record Chinuk Wawa, George C. Shaws The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: A complete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldest trade language of the American continent was published by Rainer Printing Company in 1909. Much of the lexical work is soundly rooted in Gibbs work, noted in the introduction:

Gibbs, This was by far the best dictionary at that time and will ever remain a standard authority on the language of that time. In the Chinook-English part are 490 words, and in the Enlgish-Chinook, 792. As well as building upon this solid foundation, Shaw provided innovative and powerful tools previously unpublished; the most notable being the Guide to Pronunciation, partnered with a 275 word pronouncing vocabulary with diacritically marked letters. Shaw also included extensive documentation on uncommon words which were perhaps precluded do to the rare nature of their appearance in speech. The following is one such example:

(5) Kun-a-mokst, or Kun-a-moxt, adj. prep. (C) (Chinook,-konaway mokst: literally, all two.) Both; together; with; amid; among; beside; besides. Example: Kunamoxt kahkwa,both alike. Nesika klatawa kunamokst,We will go together. Nika mitlite kunamokst yaka,I live with him. Chako kunamokst,to join; unite; meet; assemble; congregate; convene. Tumtum kunamokst,to agree. Wawa kunamokst,to consult. The added context of these entries speaks to the thorough nature and numerous amount of Shaws interactions with native speakers of Chinuk Wawa. It is difficult to say with certainty that Shaw was attempting to create a learning aid for L2 learners of Chinuk Wawa, with intent or not, he compiled extensive documentation supportive of learn Chinuk Wawa. The marquee of Shaws work is his Guide to Pronunciation: (6)

(Hale, 1909) English is obviously limited, but Shaw was forced to record in his most comfortable orthography. Phonetically, the Guide to Pronounciation illustrates the negotiation of phonetic laws; the languages diverse speaker background made phonetically neutral features a necessity. Glottalized features are softened to h and k, accommodating the European speakers; features

like the French and English d, f, g, r, v, and z become t, p, k, l, and w. The voiced alveolar affricate /tsh/ became devoiced to /dz/ and the French nasal /ng/ simply became /n/. (Hale, 1909) (7)

These two excerpts from the Pronouncing Dictionary when cross referenced with the index of vocabulary words provide sufficient materials to begin learning the language; the diacritic demarcation provides a phonological guide allowing for learners nonadjacent to a speech community to practice pronunciation. This documentation proved crucial in sustaining the vitality of the language, many of these learning aids are still used today.

Period Two: the Development of Academic Interest

The turn of the 20th century featured many shifts in scientific theory that promoted a new interest in Chinuk Wawa. Conceptualizations such as structuralism and semiotics, strongly promoted by Ferdinand de Saussure, were crucial in bringing the study of native languages into academic focus. Structuralism made paramount the understanding of human culture; this school of thinking posits that all that we think, do, feel and perceive are rooted in a larger system or structure. Structuralism partnered with a bourgeoning linguistic interest in semiotics and how languages visually and conceptually synthesize reality, fostered an environment hungry for new linguistic data. Franz Boaz, a Ph. D in physics, began his anthropological work in 1888 at Clark University in Massachusetts. After making multiple trips to the Pacific Northwest, Boaz began publishing descriptive studies of Native American languages. (Stocking, 1974) Perhaps his largest contribution to the field of linguistics is his explanation of the incongruences in dialectical variation between native tribes. Boaz proposed that it was not the Inuit peoples pronunciation that differed but rather that English speaking scholars lacked the phonetic system to appropriately describe the sound. (Berlin et al., 1991) Moreover, Boaz hoped to apply this perspective to all of the sciences, that bias can be cultural and maybe impossible, to isolate. Published in 1933, Boazs Note on the Chinook Jargon is one of his many papers that highlights very specific linguistic features. It exemplifies the newfound interest of academics and the low level analysis that defined this period. He recorded a number of extinct Chinuk Wawa words some of which were even omitted by Gibbs previous; Boaz then proceeds to explain the cultural process by which these words changed. mamuk to make had acquired an obscene meaning and was not used on the Columbia in polite discourse.

In academic fashion, Boaz also corrected definitions by citing empirical data and suggesting that previous research lacked a full understanding of Chinuk proper and the other contributing native languages. tl` tired is Chinook, not derived from English; spo`s if, pronounced on Shoalwater Bay po`s, is probably not derived from English suppose, but a Chnook proper conjunction contrary to fact, cf. Handbook of American Indian Language RBAE 40623. The word kwdi`s whale, is Tillamook or Puget Sound Salish. To conclude this paper Boaz provides a story told by a Tsimeshian in 1888 written verbatim, with a gloss in English. (8)

(Boaz, 1933) This proved to be critical step in the advancement in the academic study of Chinuk Wawa, opening the door for future grammatical, structural, and categorical analysis. Forty years later, perhaps the most comprehensive linguistic documentation of Chinuk Wawa was published. Michael Silverstein, known for his popularization of indexicality and language ideologies, was published at the age of 28 by the Linguistic Society of America. His article in the June 1972 edition of Language, Chinook Jargon: Language Contact and the Problem of Multi-Level Generative Systems, I remains a powerful review and analysis of the record of Chinuk Wawa. Silverstein makes a clear distinction that he is only examining the existing linguistic features and that for his purpose, the nativity of Chinuk Wawa is non-central. After a brief history about the routes of trade and areal tendencies toward multilingualism (due to exogamy and other factors), Silverstein positions Chinuk Wawa in relation to other native languages by quoting Hales 1890 published work: Finally, in the Jargon, as in the spoken Chinese, a good deal is expressed by the tone of voice, the look and the gesture of the speaker. The Indians in general contrary to what seems to be a common opinion are very sparing of their gesticulations. No languages, probably, require less assistance from this source than theirs. Every circumstance and qualification of their thought are expressed in their speech with a minuteness which, to those accustomed to the languages of Europe, appears exaggerated and idle Silverstein then begins to describe the phonological inventory, citing Hales work form 1848. Silverstein notes that there were multiple layers of accommodation that occurred due to the diverse nature of the phonetic inventories. Lower Chinook had the most expansive and robust phonetic system out of these languages and is placed at the top of the diagram. A majority of the sounds have been filtered down from Chinook through English and French, settling in the Chinuk Wawa inventory. Expressed graphically below:

(9) 9(a) 9(b)

In S9(a), the gutturals taken from Lower Chinook (what many consider to be Chinook Proper) go to the voiceless velar stop [k] or the voiceless glottal fricative [h] for continuants; this change occurring to accommodate the English phonetic inventory. 9(b) features the French /r/ and nasalized French [a] which happen to be absent from Lower Chinook and English. As the French [l] and nasalized [a] change to accommodate the English inventory, they simultaneously accommodate the Lower Chinook inventory. This is a rudimentary explanation of the reality. Silverstein concedes: To use Praguean terminology, there are interlingual archiphonemes which allow, within a broad category, wide language-specific (hence speaker-specific) phonological variation for each content unit. He goes on further to explain that the implementation of these phonological archicategories creates a controllable environment that can be measured and controlled. And though it may be trivial it is necessary to take each speakers linguistic background into account when working with a language that has no L1 speakers. Silverstein then uses phrase structure trees to describe the use of NPs, VPs, PPs, pronominal use, and predicate particle.

(10)

(Silverstein, 1972)

Which breakdown to simply: S = pred (NP) (ADV) pred = VP NP VP = MV (PP) / part / NP PP = ku S MV = V aux NP = (nom) pron / S nom = (dem) N (S) (NP) / S This provides a complete description of the grammatical structure of Chinuk Wawa; some issues arise with transitive and intransitive verbs and the verbing of certain objects or nouns. The extensive documentation done over the previous 150 years lead to the next era in the record of Chinuk Wawa. The efforts of every linguist and anthropologist who worked on this language laid the groundwork so that the internet could offer everyone around the world the ability to learn vocabulary and gain grammatical competence.

Period Three: Chinuk Wawa Online

The third period has the least rigid definition due to the range of sources, methodologies and contributors. The websites that I have choose to define this period function in three distinctly separate ways. The first is a website which harnesses the distribution ability of the internet to advertise classes and workshops located in Portland. The second is an online lexicon that uses phrases and relies on the learners ability to construct a personal curriculum. While the third is a website that functions like a textbook, with chapters and a path work laid out for the learners education. It should be noted that all of these websites and programs rely almost exclusively on the work of the linguists aforementioned and that these site are incredible tools created by individuals and teams that utilized the years of work dedicated to this language. Chaku-Kmdks Chinuk Wawa (found here, http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/weekend-workshops/) is a Wordpress page created by Eric Michael Bernando. The purpose of the site is to inform prospective Chinuk Wawa learners about the program that he and his family offer at Portland Community College. The most distinct feature is what Bernando calls The Pledge: By coming to any of the classes listed on this website, you must make a pledge to help us revitalize this language. We are not looking for people to come and learn this language and then take it elsewhere. We are building a vibrant language community. When you enroll for these classes, you are making the pledge to become not just a speaker of Chinuk Wawa, but a teacher as well. Welcome to the community and thank you for your support! (Bernando, 2011) This is a manifesto; it is a statement about their goals. They not only wish to teach the language but to create a language community, one that aims to revitalize the language and increase its linguistic capital. They offer workshops on the weekends as well as three month programs; supporting their overall goal of revitalization, they provide links to other resources including classes at Lane Community College.

The Ikt Chinook Wawa Book (located at http://www.cayoosh.net/hiyu/chinref.html) is an online lexicon and phrase book that facilitates learning through categorical grouping of words and phrases. To supplement for a lack of grammatical and pronouncation materials, Mike Cleven (the websites main contributor) offers Guidelines, reading as follows: Guideline No. 5: The combination "oo" seems to vary from a pure "u" (as in skookum and cayoosh) to a dipthong as in book and crook (jargon book and clook). I have heard skookum using the latter sound, but I'm pretty sure this is a later evolution; certainly in the modern prononciation of the placename Skookumchuck it is more like book, but this is not necessarily so and may vary. Conversely cayoosh as it is used in the Lillooet country today is a pure "u", while it may have been pronounced in earlier times more like the vowel in book. Similarly the letter "u" seems to vary somewhat, from a short "u" (uh) like the first one in tukamonuk (the second being more like book) to a long one in cayuse. (Cleven, 2004) The groupings are common categories of speech many of which are domain specific, a welldocumented tactic for L2 learners. (Siegler, 2006) The groupings are: Greetings & Salutations, Common Phrases, Money, Trade, & Travel, Time & the Elements, Food & Domestic Life, Fun & Games, Critters & Livestock, People, The Body, Numbers, Interrogatives, Prepositions, & Interjections, Verbs & Concepts, Adjectives & Adverbs, and Grammar & Prononciation. Cleven makes available his e-mail to contact him about Chinuk Wawa and has even self-published some poetry and stories in the language. The third website is The Wawa Press, published and maintained by R. James Holden, this site is a digital version of the book, Chinook Jargon - The Hidden Language of the Pacific Northwest. A .pdf version of the book is readily available on the site and a link is provided to an Amazon Kindle version as well. The chapters are as follows: Cover - Front and back cover as well as spine Foreword - Title Page, table of contents, and foreword History - Chapter 1 Language - Chapters 2, 3, and 4 Topics - Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 Culture - Chapters 9 and 10 Vocabulary - Chinook Jargon vocabulary English Reference - English to Chinook lookup Notes - Orthography conversion and wordlists Bibliography - List of most important sources Index - Currently contains persons, titles, and groups (Holton, 2008) Holden provides a history of the language offering a brief education into the history of the language and the interactions between native peoples and European settlers. He supplements vocabulary and grammar with integral information about the culture, history and environment in

which the language was spoken. This site seems to be the least active but offers the most comprehensive guide to learning Chinuk Wawa.

In Summary
The evolution in the record of Chinuk Wawa stems from the ever-changing motivations linguists, anthropologist, and language learners. The likes of Gibbs, Shaw and Hale began their work, initially, for completely functional purposes. Gibbs created a professional niche by utilizing his hyper-contact with native languages and positioning himself as an expert in those languages. To aid himself and others he made extensive documentation which later became the basis for all work on Chinuk Wawa for centuries to come. Shaws work complimented Gibbs initial contribution by creating language acquisition resources. Injecting cultural, historical, and linguistic context, Shaw made the language more accessible to language learners. Most importantly he created the first inventory of phonetic features, this sparked incredible interest in the academic field. As a bourgeoning field, native languages began attracting some of the greatest minds in achademic linguistics and anthropology. A new fascination with these loosely documented languages created a flood of academic interest; each linguist placing a torch, illuminating the path for the next who ventured forth to deepen their understanding of these languages. Franz Boaz, who initially began work on Lower Chinuk eventually took a similar approach with Chinuk Wawa. He employed narrow transcriptions while extensively documenting every resource, and meticulously analyzing every modicum of linguistic data in classic German linguistic fashion. Chinuk Wawa was then subjected to Silversteins models of ideology, category and indexicality; his perspective would lead to the analysis of structure trees and the relationships between the grammar, syntax, and most importantly the phonologies of the contributing languages. With this deeper understanding, of how the language worked, and changing attitudes towards speaking Native American languages, a new era of revitalization would emerge. Chinuk Wawa is lucky to have such extensive documentation on all fronts; it offers resources to those who wish to speak it today. With the advent of the internet, those resources are readily available to anyone with access to a computer. Perhaps just as important, the internet allows for speech communities to operate at great distances, connecting speakers and creating a conducive environment for learning. Unfortunately, these are not the same benifits that many native languages share. What the future holds for Chinuk Wawa is not certain. As language reclamation increases in popularity we may see more tribes learning Chinuk Wawa, as they do at Grande Ronde. It has the potential to be reborn as it once was, a lingua franca; it could function as an expression of pride, not only for natives, but for all those who call the Pacific Northwest home. A badge of honor, paid in respect to those who lived with appreciation for each other and this land, Europeans and natives alike.

References:
Bernando, M. (2011, January 03). Chaku-kmdks chinuk wawa. Retrieved from http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/ Boaz, F. (1933). Note on the chinook jargon. Lanugage,9(2), 208-213. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/409271 Berlin, Brent, and Paul K. Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Univ of California Press, 1991. Cleven, M. (2004, March 29). Klahowya kopa chinook wawa. Retrieved from http://www.cayoosh.net/hiyu/ Gibbs, G. (1854). "Report on the Indian Tribes of the Territory of Washington." Secretary of War Reports of Explorations 1:400-449. Gibbs, George (1863). A dictionary of the Chinook Jargon or trade language of Oregon. Informally published manuscript, , Available from Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Hale, H. (1909). Guide to pronunciation. In M. Eells (Ed.),The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: A complete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldest trade language of the American continent Seattle: Rainier Printing Company. Holton, J. (2008, July 16). Wawa press presents: chinook jargon - the hidden language of the pacific northwest. Retrieved from http://www.rjholton.com/ Jones, N. (1972). Seattle. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 94 et. seq. ISBN 0-385-01875-4.. Quotation is from p. 97. Lang, G. (2008). Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon. Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. especially 127128. ISBN 978-0-7748-1526-0. Shaw, G. (1909). The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: A complete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldest trade language of the American continent. In M. Eells & G. Gibbs (Eds.), Shaw's Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon. Seattle: Rainier Printing Company. Siegler, R. (2006). How Childred Develop, Exploring Child Develop Student Media Tool Kit & Scientific American Reader to Accompany How Children Develop. New York: Worth Publishers. ISBN 0-71676113-0. Silverstein, M. (1972). Chinook Jargon: Language contact and the problem of multi-level generative systems, I. Language, 378-406. Stocking, G. W. 1974. "The Boas plan for the study of American Indian languages," in Studies in the history of linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Edited by D. Hymes, pp. 45483. Bloomington: Indiana University Press