Editing Chinook Jargon (section)

==History==

===Origins===
Whether Jargon was a post-contact or pre-contact language has been the subject of debate among scholars.<ref name="harris" /> In 2016, linguist John Lyon studied the word lists collected by [[Francis Drake]] and his crew on the 1579 voyage that took them to the Oregon coast. Lyon compared the seven words and phrases found on the Native vocabulary list recorded by Drake and his men with the vocabularies of Native languages on the west coast (Lyon 2016).<ref>"Francis Drake's 1579 Voyage: Assessing Linguistic Evidence for an Oregon Landing", ''Anthropological Linguistics'' 58, no. 1.</ref>

Of the five single words on the list, Lyon found that the word ''petáh,'' which was the Native word for a root that can be eaten raw or made into cakes called ''cheepe'', were meaning matches for the Jargon words 'wapato' (a root that tastes like a potato) and 'chaplill', the word for the bread cakes made from this root (Lyon 2016:41). The word recorded for 'king' by Drake was 'hióh' (recorded also as 'hioghe'). Lyon thought it was a match for the Wawa word hi-yú, meaning a gathering, or much, plenty. Lyon was not able to conclude whether Drake encountered people of the Northwest Coast.

In 2021, Melissa Darby studied the ethnographic records and the records left by Francis Drake's expedition. She found new evidence that the people Drake met were speaking some Jargon words to Drake and his men.<ref>Melissa Darby, "New Light on the Antiquity of Chinook Jargon (Chinuk Wawa) from Francis Drake's Exploration of the Northwest Coast", ''Journal of Northwest Anthropology'', Fall 2021, Vol. 55 No. 2.</ref>

The pre-contact hypothesis states that the language developed prior to European settlement as an intra-indigenous [[contact language]] in a region marked by divisive geography and intense linguistic diversity. It eventually expanded to incorporate elements of European languages, with approximately 15 percent of its lexicon derived from [[French language|French]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zenk |first1=Henry |title=Chinook Jargon (Chinuk Wawa) |url= https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/chinook_jargon/#.YEWynZ1KhPY |website=Oregon Encyclopedia |publisher=Oregon Historical Society |access-date=March 7, 2021}}</ref><ref name="holton">{{cite book |last=Holton |first=Jim |date=1999 |title=Chinook Jargon: The Hidden Language of the Pacific Northwest}}</ref> The Jargon also acquired [[English language|English]] loanwords, and its written form is entirely in the [[Duployan shorthand]] created by French priest [[Émile Duployé]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Early Vancouver |first=J. S. "Skit" |last=Matthews |publisher=City of Vancouver Archives |date=1936}}</ref><ref name="lillard">{{Cite book |last1=Lillard |first1=Charles |author1-link=Charles Lillard |first2=Terry |last2=Glavin |title=A Voice Great Within Us |publisher=New Star Books |date=1998 |location=Vancouver |isbn=0921586566 |url= https://archive.org/details/voicegreatwithin0000lill}}</ref>

The post-contact hypothesis suggests the language originated in Nootka Sound after the arrival of Russian and Spanish traders as a means of communicating between them and indigenous peoples. It eventually spread further south due to commercial use.<ref name="harris" /> [[University of Ottawa]] linguist George Lang has argued for this conclusion.<ref name="lanngg">{{cite book |last1=Lang |first1=George |title=Making Wawa: The genesis of Chinook Jargon |date=2008 |publisher=UBC Press |ref=langg}}</ref>

Linguist Barbara Harris suggests a dual genesis, positing that both origins probably have some legitimacy and that the two varieties eventually blended together.<ref name="harris">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Barbara |title=Chinook Jargon: Arguments for a Pre-Contact Origin |journal=Pacific Coast Philology |date=September 1994 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=28–36 |doi=10.2307/1316345 |jstor=1316345 |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/1316345|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

By 1840, Chinook Jargon had [[creolization|creolized]] into a native language for some speakers.<ref>{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_yRvZM3mN-U4C |title=United States Exploring Expedition: During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1842 Under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N.. Ethnography and philology |last=Hale |first=Horatio |date=1846 |publisher=Lea and Blanchard}}</ref>

===Use===
[[File:Wawatest2.jpg|thumb|An example of the shorthand "Chinuk Pipa" writing system used in the ''[[Kamloops Wawa]]'' newspaper]]
In the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamloops|Diocese of Kamloops]], British Columbia, hundreds of speakers learned to read and write the Jargon using [[Duployan shorthand]] via the publication ''[[Kamloops Wawa]]''. As a result, the Jargon had the beginnings of its own literature, mostly translated [[Bible|scripture]] and [[Classics|classical works]], some local and [[Bishop (Catholic Church)#Diocesan bishops or eparchs|episcopal]] news, community gossip and events, and [[Personal journal|diaries]].<ref name="holton" /> [[Marah Ellis Ryan]] (c. 1860–1934), an early Native American activist and novelist,   used Chinook words and phrases in her writing.<ref>''Squaw Elouise'', Chicago; New York: Rand, McNally, 1892; ''Told in the Hills'', Chicago; New York: Rand, McNally, 1891, 1905.</ref>

In [[Oregon]], Chinook Jargon was widely used by natives, trappers, traders, employees of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], missionaries, and pioneers who came across the Oregon Trail from the 1830s to the 1870s. In [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]]'s first half century (1840s–1890s), there were frequent trade interactions between pioneers and Native Americans. Many Oregonians used Jargon in casual conversation. Jones estimates that in pioneer times in the 1860s<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181002-north-americas-nearly-forgotten-language |title=North America's nearly forgotten language |publisher=BBC |access-date=October 3, 2018}}</ref> there were about 100,000 speakers of Chinook Jargon.<ref>Jones (1972), p. 97.</ref> It peaked in usage from approximately 1858 to 1900, and declined as a result of widespread deaths from the [[Spanish flu]] and [[World War I]].<ref name="The Tyee">{{cite web |url= https://thetyee.ca/Life/2006/01/10/StillSpeakChinook/ |title=Can We Still Speak Chinook? |date=January 10, 2006 |work=The Tyee}}</ref>

As late as the 1940s, native children were born in [[Tiller, Oregon]], who grew up speaking Chinook Jargon as their first language.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.15/tribal-affairs-when-federal-lands-become-tribal-lands-again-public-lands |title=When public lands become tribal lands again |date=August 16, 2019 |first=Anna V. |last=Smith |website=HCN.org |access-date=January 15, 2020}}</ref> But by 1962, the [[SIL International|Summer Institute of Linguistics]] (SIL) estimated that only 100 speakers were left.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

According to [[Nard Jones]], Chinook Jargon was still in use in [[Seattle]] until roughly the eve of [[World War II]], especially among the members of the Arctic Club. Seattle was the last city where the language was widely used. Writing in 1972, Jones  remarked that "Only a few can speak it fully, men of ninety or a hundred years old, like [[Henry Broderick (realtor)|Henry Broderick]], the realtor, and [[Joshua Green (seaman and banker)|Joshua Green]], the banker."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Nard |author-link=Nard Jones |title=Seattle |date=1972 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0385018754 |location=Garden City, New York |pages=94 ''et. seq.''}} Quotation is from p. 97.</ref>

In the 2000s, [[Lane Community College]] in [[Eugene, Oregon]], started a three-semester university program teaching Chinook Jargon.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.lanecc.edu/llc/language/chinuk-wawa |title=Chinuk Wawa |website=LaneCC.edu |access-date=January 15, 2020 |publisher=Lane Community College |location=Eugene, Oregon}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url= https://nativestudies.uoregon.edu/tag/chinuk-wawa/|title=Chinuk Wawa |publisher=Native American Studies Dept., University of Oregon |location=Eugene |website=NativeStudies.UOregon.edu |access-date=January 15, 2020}}</ref>

In 2013, it was reported that there was one native speaker of Chinook Jargon (specifically the Grand Ronde variety). An estimated 1,000 people had oral or written knowledge of Chinook Jargon as a second language.<ref name="apics-online" /> In 2015, the [[U.S. Census Bureau]] estimated based on the self-reported [[American Community Survey]] that around 45 people (with a margin of error of 25) spoke Chinook Jargon at home in the period 2009–2013.<ref name="US-census">{{cite web |title=Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2009-2013 |url= https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html |website=Census.gov |publisher=US Census Bureau |location=Washington, DC |access-date=October 22, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151106035547/http://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html |archive-date=November 6, 2015 |date=October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Evolution ===
There is some controversy about the origin of the Jargon, but the consensus is that the pidgin peaked in use during the 19th century. During this era, many dictionaries were published to help settlers interact with the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] people living in the Pacific Northwest. Local settler families exchanged communiqués that were stylishly composed entirely in "the Chinook." Many residents of the [[British Columbia]] city of [[Vancouver]] spoke Chinook Jargon as their [[first language]], even using it at home in preference to English. Among the first Europeans to use Chinook Jargon were [[merchant|traders]], [[animal trapping|trappers]], [[voyageurs]], [[coureur des bois|coureurs des bois]], and [[Catholic missionaries]].<ref>[http://www.metismuseum.ca/media/document.php/149202.Chinook%20Jargon.pdf Goulet, George and Terry Goulet.]</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Barkwell|first= Lawrence J.|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/142973621/Chinook-Metis-Trade-Language|title=Chinook: Metis Trade Language|website=[[Scribd]]}}</ref>

The original Jargon was a pidgin, originally used as a second language by speakers of other Native American languages in the area. It had sentence-initial negation, which is atypical of regional languages, and also had no typical [[Polysynthetic language|complex morphology]]. It had an [[Subject–verb–object word order|SVO structure]], while [[Chinookan languages|Chinookan]] and [[Salishan languages]] were VSO. However, local [[Athabaskan languages]] were SOV, so this was probably a result of contact — a cross-language compromise. Only later did Chinook Jargon acquire significant English and French lexical items.

The Jargon is influenced by individuals' accents and terms from their native languages; as [[Kanakas]] married into First Nations and non-native families, their particular mode of the Jargon is believed to have contained [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] words or Hawaiian styles of pronunciation. In some areas, the adoption of further non-aboriginal words has been observed. During the [[gold rush]], Chinook Jargon was used in British Columbia at first by gold prospectors and [[Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment|Royal Engineers]]; as industry developed, Chinook Jargon was often used by cannery workers, hop pickers, loggers, fishermen, and ranchers. It is possible that, at one point, the population of British Columbia spoke Chinook Jargon more than any other language, even English.<ref name="Barman 1991">{{cite book |last1=Barman |first1=Jean |title=The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia |date=2007 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9780802093097 |pages=180–181 |edition=3rd}}</ref> Historian Jane Barman wrote:<ref name="Barman 1991" />
{{Blockquote|text=The persistence of everyday relationships between Natives and Europeans is embodied in Chinook. Emerging out of early contact and the fur trade, the Chinook jargon possesses at most 700 words derived in approximately equal proportions from the powerful Chinook Indians of the lower Columbia, from the Nootka people of Vancouver Island, and from French and English... jargon provided 'an important vehicle of communication for trading & ordinary purposes.'&nbsp;... <p>Chinook was the language of instruction in the school for Indian children that Hills established near Victoria in 1860.&nbsp;... Chinook entered the mainstream.&nbsp;... It was only after mid-century, when almost all Indian adults had learned basic English in school, that everyday use of Chinook died out in British Columbia.</p>}}

A heavily creolized form of Chinook Jargon is still spoken as a first language by some residents of [[Oregon]], much as the [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] language [[Michif]] is spoken in [[Canada]].{{Clarify|reason=Much as in?|date=March 2024}} Hence, Chinuk Wawa, as it is known in Oregon, is now a [[creole language]], distinct from the varied pronunciation of the Chinook Jargon. There is evidence that in some communities (e.g., around [[Fort Vancouver]]) the Jargon had become creolized by the early 19th century, and that would have been among the mixed French/Métis, Algonkian, Scots and Hawaiian populations, as well as among the natives around the Fort. At Grand Ronde, the resettlement of tribes from all over Oregon in a multi-tribal agency led to the use of Chinuk Wawa as a common tongue among the linguistically diverse population. These circumstances led to the creolization of Chinuk Wawa at Grand Ronde.<ref name="zenk">{{Cite book |last=Zenk |first=Henry |title=Chinook Jargon and Native Cultural Persistence in the Grand Ronde Indian Community, 1856-1907: A Special Case of Creolization |publisher=University of Oregon |date=1984}}</ref> There is also evidence that creolization occurred at the [[Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians|Confederated Tribes of Siletz]] reservation paralleling Grand Ronde,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.livingtongues.org/hotspots/hotspot.siletz.html |title=Siletz Dee-Ni Talking Online Dictionary Project Western North America |publisher=Living Tongues Institute For Endangered Languages |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131110013331/http://www.livingtongues.org/hotspots/hotspot.siletz.html |archive-date=November 10, 2013}}</ref> although, due to language revitalization efforts being focused on the [[Tolowa language]], Chinuk fell out of use.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

No studies of British Columbia versions of the Jargon have demonstrated creolization. The range of varying usages and vocabulary in different regions suggests that localization did occur—although not on the pattern of Grand Ronde where Wasco, Klickitat and other peoples adopted and added to the version of the Jargon that developed there. First-language speakers of the Chinook Jargon were common in BC (native and non-native), until the mid-20th century. After 1850, the Wawa was still used in the United States portion of the Chinook-speaking world, especially in wilderness areas and work environments.<ref name="lillard" /> Local creolization's probably did occur in British Columbia, but recorded materials have not been studied as they were made due to the focus on the traditional aboriginal languages.{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}

There is a belief that something similar to the Jargon existed before European contact—without European words in its vocabulary.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Edward Harper |title=Chinook: A History and Dictionary |location=Portland, Oregon |publisher=Binfords & Mort |date=1935 |page=10 |isbn=0832302171}}</ref> There is some evidence for a Chinookan-Nuu-chah-nulth [[lingua franca]] in the writings of [[John Jewitt]] and in what is known as the Barclay Sound word-list, from the area of [[Ucluelet]] and [[Port Alberni|Alberni]]. Others{{who|date=November 2012}} believe that the Jargon was formed during contact.<ref name="holton" />

Current scholarly opinion{{who|date=November 2012}} holds that a trade language probably existed before European contact, which began "morphing" into the more familiar Chinook Jargon in the late 1790s, notably at a dinner party at Nootka Sound where Capts [[George Vancouver|Vancouver]] and [[Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra|Bodega y Quadra]] were entertained by Chief Maquinna and his brother Callicum performing a theatrical using mock English and [[mock Spanish]] words and mimicry of European dress and mannerisms. There evidently was Jargon in use in Queen Charlotte, but this "[[Haida language|Haida]] [[Jargon]]" is not known to have shared anything in common with Chinook Jargon or with the Nootkan-Chinookan "proto-jargon", which is its main foundation.