Editing Chinook Jargon (section)

{{Short description|Pidgin trade language from the Pacific Northwest}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Chinook Jargon
| nativename       = {{lang|chn-Latn|chinuk wawa, wawa, chinook lelang, lelang, chinook}}<br/>{{lang|chn-Dupl|𛰣𛱇‌𛰚𛱛𛰅 𛱜‌𛱜}}
| states           = [[Canada]], [[United States]]
| region           = Pacific Northwest (Interior and Coast): Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Northern California
| speakers         = 1
| date             = 2013
| ref              = <ref name="apics-online">{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Anthony |title=Chinuk Wawa structure dataset |url= https://apics-online.info/contributions/74 |website=Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online |publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |access-date=October 22, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180114140553/https://apics-online.info/contributions/74 |archive-date=January 14, 2018 |location=Leipzig |date=2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| familycolor      = pidgin
| family           = Mainly [[Wakashan]] ([[Nootka Jargon]]), [[Chinookan]], and [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] ([[Germanic languages|Germanic]] and [[Romance languages|Romance]])
| iso2             = chn
| iso3             = chn
| glotto           = pidg1254
| glottoname       = (pidgin)
| glottorefname    = Pidgin Chinook Jargon
| glotto2          = chin1272
| glottoname2      = (creole)
| glottorefname2   = Creolized Grand Ronde Chinook Jargon
| script           = {{lang|la|De facto}} [[Latin script|Latin]],<br />historically [[Duployan shorthand|Duployan]];<br />currently standardized [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]-based orthography
| nation           = {{lang|la|De facto}} in Pacific Northwest until about 1920
| map              = Lang Status 20-CR.svg
| mapcaption       = {{center|{{small|Chinook Jargon is classified as Critically Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}
| image            = Gill's Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon 01B.jpg
| imagecaption     = Cover, ''[[J. K. Gill Company|Gill]]'s Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon'', 13th Edition, 1891. Photographed at [[Log House Museum]], [[Seattle, Washington]].
}}
'''Chinook Jargon''' (''{{lang|chn|Chinuk Wawa}}'' or ''{{lang|chn|Chinook Wawa}}'', also known simply as ''Chinook'' or ''Jargon'') is a language originating as a [[pidgin language|pidgin trade language]] in the [[Pacific Northwest]]. It spread during the 19th century from the lower [[Columbia River]], first to other areas in modern [[Oregon]] and [[Washington (state)|Washington]], then to [[British Columbia]] and parts of [[Alaska]], [[Northern California]], [[Idaho]] and [[Montana]]. It sometimes took on the characteristics of a [[creole language]].<ref name="lang">{{Cite book |last=Lang |first=George |title=Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon |publisher=UBC Press |date=2008 |location=Vancouver |pages=127–128 |isbn=9780774815260}}</ref> The contact language Chinook Jargon should not be confused with the Indigenous language [[Chinookan languages|Chinook]].<ref name="dene">{{cite web |url= http://www.ydli.org/bcother/chinook.htm |title=Chinook Jargon |access-date=December 2, 2009 |publisher=Yinka Dene Language Institute}}</ref>

Reflecting its origins in early trade transactions, approximately 15 percent of its lexicon is French. It also makes use of English loan words and those of other language systems. Its entire written form is in the [[Duployan shorthand]] developed by French priest Émile Duployé.

Many words from Chinook Jargon remain in common use in the [[Western United States]] and British Columbia. It has been described as part of a multicultural heritage shared by the modern inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest. The total number of Jargon words in published lexicons is in the hundreds.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gibbs |first=George |date=1863 |url= http://content.lib.washington.edu/curriculumpackets/treaties/Chinook_Dictionary_Abridged.pdf |title=Dictionary of the Chinook Language, or, Trade Language of Oregon |edition=Abridged |location=New York |publisher=Cramoisy Press |via=University of Washington Library |access-date=July 13, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120904223643/http://content.lib.washington.edu/curriculumpackets/treaties/Chinook_Dictionary_Abridged.pdf |archive-date=September 4, 2012}}</ref> It has a simple grammatical system. In Chinook Jargon, the consonant {{IPA|/r/}} is rare. Such English and French loan words as ''rice'' and {{lang|fr|merci}}, for instance, have changed after being adopted to the Jargon, to ''{{lang|chn|lays}}'' and ''{{lang|chn|mahsi}}'', respectively.