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Chinook Jargon Songs
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Aug 13 - 10:58 AM Would that be Duane Niatum? I used to be in touch with him. He retired from teaching a number of years ago but I hope he is still writing. My father (John Dwyer of Marysville, WA) recorded a lot of the song circle groups he attended in Washington and BC and was an old friend of the late Phil Thomas. I will be keeping track of who sings what on the tapes when I get to transcribing the material from those meetings. Before I retire, I hope. If he sang this on any tapes I'll post a note about it. SRS |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: GUEST,dancinmiriam Date: 16 Aug 13 - 07:48 PM I came across this thread trying to look up Chinook song, for many and varied reasons - one: I am a dancer and director and have been 'commissioned' to create a ballet (I'm in No. Calif. - Klamath/Mad River etc.) and have settled on giving it 'place' as Pac. Northwest. I am originally from the WA, and my family specifically grew up in the Cowlitz River area. My other connection is that I saw dianavan mention the Cowlitz and her mother/grandmother and couldn't resist the temptation of finding another connection - my grandfather who had a farm in the mountains around the Cowlitz, spoke Chinook (though now I don't know if it was 'CJ' or true Chinook), worked with the Chinook prior to and during the Depression, and was a poet and songwriter. He wrote a published song about the Cowlitz in fact. I read some of his songs and poetry and it sounds so like some of Niatum's in its phrasing. Finally, does anyone know of composers of some of these songs for Western instrumentation? |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 25 Mar 12 - 03:57 PM Chinook Jargon Facebook Group - for everybody from Grand Ronde creole speakers to Kamloops Wawa Chinook Pipa readers, but I haven't seen much on songs there yet. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: mg Date: 24 Mar 12 - 08:03 PM I put some Chinook words into a song about fishing in Copper River.. It's chuck skookumchuck hiyu potlach skookumchuck Chuck skooumchuck hiyu potlach skookumchuck Chuck skookumchuck ...salmon muck a muck GOing after Copper River salmon in the spring And I can not possibly speak for Chinook people, but their tribal recognition was not denied by the government per se. Other tribes were involved. It is complex and sensitive and people would have to research it themselves. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: GUEST Date: 01 Jan 11 - 04:58 AM I am glad I found this. The Chinook Jargon was sued when our People of the Makah nations signed the treaty with the US Govrn. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Azizi Date: 11 Apr 06 - 11:20 PM This is a fascinating thread. Thanks for refreshing it. I'd like to echo ridovem's question to dianavan about whether the Bluejay story ever make its way to an audience. Also, Haruo wrote that "And there's the combination "t'³", which is similar to the click that many English-speakers use to call a horse, except the click is explosive rather than implosive. It's a combination of a glottalized t and a barred l. Fun to practice; hard to get fluent in." I'm wondering if this click sound is like the sound in some Xhosa {South African} words, as heard in some lyrics that vocalist Miriam Makeba introduced to the Western in "The Click Song" records. Also, I'm curious if there are other world languages that have a click sound. Thanks again, particularly to Haruo for this thread. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Bob the Postman Date: 11 Apr 06 - 08:01 AM Here is a link to a dictionary of Chinook Jargon |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: GUEST,ridovem Date: 11 Apr 06 - 04:22 AM Dianavan, did your Bluejay story ever make its way to an audience? That seemed pretty hopeful, back in '04... This thread came my way after my purchase of a reprint of the Chinook jargon book by George Shaw (1909) that Shorey's in Seattle reissued in 1983. It was in a little shop on Vashon Island. I learned "Seattle Illahee" in 1966, when playing in a jugband- one of whose members had an original of the Jargon book. In 2000 I bought a copy of The Chinook Observer (while visiting friends in Nahcotta) that had a picture of the Chinook representatives who had successfully petitioned Clinton to get the tribe reinstated; and I saved that paper. They were standing in the doorway of the old grade school in Chinook. It's a colorful picture of jubilant people. I hope only the best for them... ^..^ |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 18 Jun 04 - 02:41 AM Lyr Req thread on another Phil Thomas English/CJ song Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: dianavan Date: 14 Jun 04 - 09:16 PM Is it Chinookan that the Cowlitz used? |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 14 Jun 04 - 02:55 AM As far as I know there are no living speakers of the lower Chinook dialects, such as Clackamas or Clatsop. However, there are a few speakers (the Ethnologue says 12 for Kiksht in 1996, and 69 for Wasco-Wishram in 1990) of a couple of the upriver Chinookan dialects still living on the Warm Springs Reservation (and maybe elsewhere): Wasco-Wishram and Kiksht are the dialects in question. Sometimes in developing the living language on the Grand Ronde Reservation, when data from the local elders is lacking, they turn to Kiksht for models. The language spoken at Grand Ronde is a creole, not the original jargon much less the original Chinookan. The people there came (by government decree) from more than a dozen different language-stocks and have spoken the "jargon" (actually creole) for many generations now. As for government recognition, that is generally on a piecemeal basis. This group gets recognized, that group gets ignored or actively suppressed. There are Chinookan, and Chinuk-Wawa-using groups that have government recognition, and others that don't. I'm glad you're getting something of value out of this thread. I'll be giving a brief presentation on Chinuk Wawa (in Esperanto) at the Canada/US Esperanto Convention in Sidney on July 18th (10 AM at the Mary Winspear Centre). If you're in the area, come on by. The performance of "Seattle Illahee" at Folklife, by the way, was wonderful. The pronunciation was definitely Euro-Jargon, but it was fun and appropriate. Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: dianavan Date: 13 Jun 04 - 04:54 PM Thanks - I think what my grandmother spoke was the language not the jargon. I would like to hear the language and the jargon to see if I can hear the difference. I'm close to Langara so I'll take a look. When I said 'extinct', I meant that it was the government designation. Of course we're not extinct (definitely assimilated) but I am so happy to hear that the govt. has finally recognized that we still exist. It was not actually the settlers that pushed us out, it was the Hudson's Bay Company. Many people moved N.E. in an attempt to join others in a resistance. As they moved up the Columbia toward Canada (and Louis Riel) the U.S. calvary cut them off. Thats when they were put on reserves in the desert. That was a long time ago but I have never heard any opposition to settlers. As it turned out, my grandmother and her sisters were separated from their parents and raised by Shakers at a mission. It was not an easy choice, but apparently it was the lesser of two evils - the reserve or the Shakers. My grandmother learned how to cook 'white' food, how to sew and how 'not to dance'. She was then married off to a Dutch-Indonesian seaman in Astoria. They went back to the land and started fishing. In those days, racism was not a big issue. In fact, if you wanted to survive, the best thing you could do was marry a Native woman because she knew how to live on the land and how and where to fish. Seems that white women were also in short supply. Thats how I became a hybrid. In fact, my mother is from a Danish family that settled and farmed that area. My father, from a family of fishermen in the same area. Sure, great, we are no longer extinct but only remnants remain. Land claims? Maybe - but I for one, have no desire to claim a nuclear power plant. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: semi-submersible Date: 13 Jun 04 - 04:10 PM Dianavan, is the language you remember from your grandmother, the language of the Chinook people, or the Chinook trade jargon (derived from English, French, Salish, Chinook, etc)? I understand the Chinook tribe had a strong culture and strategic location (resources & trade routes). However, when the settlers came (fences, new diseases, firearms), that was the location they wanted...all of it... But extinct? Even the Beothuk of Newfoundland left descendants among the Mi'kmaq (Micmac). Culture is never static. If a People choose, they can rise again today. At Langara College in Vancouver some years back, there were more library records (tapes, etc.) of the Chinook Language than of the Chinook Jargon. You may find the same at other universities, etc. Good hunting! |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: dianavan Date: 13 Jun 04 - 12:43 AM Thank-you so much for this thread. As an American hybrid living in Canada I am pretty out of touch with my grandmother's language. Oddly enough, I can still still remember the intonnation and my tongue quite easily produces the sounds. Alas, I am far too distant to learn to speak the language - the best I can do is remember the stories and hope that your children will learn Chinook and thereby feel cultural pride. I still feel the pride of being born to such a strong and powerful people. The land was rich and the people, prosperous. I still visit our hunting and fishing spots and longingly remember my younger years - fishing smelt, salmon and sturgeon, digging razor clams, hunting deer and elk and ducks too. Mostly I remember running along the beach at low tide with my cousins. What a life! I am so happy and proud to know that we are no longer extinct. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 13 Jun 04 - 12:19 AM BTW there was a very interesting article in the Seattle Times last week about Chinook Jargon (or rather its descendant spoken at Grand Ronde, OR) which has a one-minute sound file those who have never actually heard the language spoken might find fascinating: future in voices of children Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 26 May 04 - 01:01 AM I just noticed I failed to gloss the word "shati" (as in "tumala shati" and "wiski shati"). You may (or may not) have guessed that this is Wawa for "song", being derived (directly or indirectly) from French "chanter" or "chantez", and probably cognate with English "shant(e)y". Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 24 May 04 - 11:51 PM I just posted the first verse of "Are You Washed in the Blood" in Chinook Jargon (this is the pidgin, not the creole) in my online hymnal: mayka wash kopa djisEs pilpil English: Elisha Hoffman, 1878 Chinook Jargon: anonymous, n.d. mayka wash ... mayka wash ... mayka wash kopa djisEs pilpil mamuk (h)elo masachi kopa mayka tEmtEm mayka wash kopa djisEs pilpil Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 24 May 04 - 11:46 PM Try getting ready to say an ordinary English "l" as in "let's", but instead of saying the "l" hold your tongue where it is and let the air escape to the side of the tongue. Oh, wait, you asked what it sounds like, not how to pronounce it. Your best bet is to buttonhole a Welsh-speaker and get them to demonstrate. And no, it is not like the Spanish "ll" to speak of. Chinuk Wawa also has some other, more unusual consonants (though they're quite usual in Northwest Coast languages), particularly the "ejective" (or "glottalized") consonants, where basically you pronounce a glottal stop (the sound between the vowels in "uh-oh" and "oh-oh", or in some pronunciations of "bottle" [bo?l] or "battery" [bæ'ri]) at the same time you make another consonant. For example, the "k'" in "tumala nayka munk manak'i-Lush" is an "ejective k", where you get ready to say "k" and then do a glottal stop before continuing. And there's the combination "t'ł", which is similar to the click that many English-speakers use to call a horse, except the click is explosive rather than implosive. It's a combination of a glottalized t and a barred l. Fun to practice; hard to get fluent in. Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: open mike Date: 24 May 04 - 11:21 PM what does the double l sound like in the "ll" in Welsh "Llanfair"? is it like the double L in spanish that sounds like "Y" as in vanilla va-nee-ya..or (don't let kendall see this:) llama = Yama |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 24 May 04 - 10:09 PM To answer my earlier question, the Phil Thomas Tribute Concert is set for the Center House Theater, Sunday 1-2 pm. Hope to see some of you there. I'll be wearing my hat with the Syriac-looking nametag that's actually Chinook Jargon written in Duployan Shorthand à la Kamloops Wawa and the "Mi [heart] Esperanton" button the back. Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 08:53 PM Hi Diana (dianavan), LaXayEm! (as we say in Chinuk Wawa, "Klahowya" in the Boston spelling), I'm going to try to get some of the Wawa people to visit this thread and maybe one of them will have a good suggestion for you about presenting the story/play about Bluejay and "IOI" [is that her name? it looks a bit odd]. I'll post an invitation to the Chinook Jargon mailing list. Haruo |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: dianavan Date: 22 May 04 - 03:24 AM I don't have any songs but I have a story of Bluejay and his sister IOI. Its very old and was performed with dancers and masks before it was outlawed. It was then told in story form by the secret society of storytellers. My grandmother repeated the story to me as a child, verse by verse, many times over. I'm sure it has gone through many variations but I would really like to see it performed some day. I can see the costumes and the masks and would love to know the significance of the story. The other characters are brother Crane, Mother Seal, Father Dipper and Beaver. Have you ever heard it? Can you put me in touch with a Chinook speaker or playwright or someone in theater? I've been waiting for this for a long time. Did you know that the reason Chinook was the jargon used so widely? It was the language of trade. The Chinook people controlled the trade on the coast and inland by way of the rivers. The Chinook territory was the economic center of the Pacific Coast. When the Hudson's Bay Company arrived, they knew that if they wanted to control the economy, they would have to wipe out the Chinook. Especially their matriarchal society because the women were too hard to bargain with. Thus they introduced liquor and those nasty blankets (weapons of mass destruction). I understand that the Federal Government finally recognized the Chinook. For years they said we were extinct. Hybridized yes, extinct, no. I was afraid the language died with Ma. So where are you from? I grew up in the Cowlitz River valley and spent most of my time in and around the area where the Columbia River meets the Pacific. Thats where my story takes place. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 03:08 AM Thanks, Jon! When's the Tribute Concert set for? I'd love to be there. I'll pass the news along to the Chinook crowd... |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Wiski From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 03:04 AM wiski shati anqati nayka tiki wiski [x3] pi alta nayka mash ukuk alta nayka mash ukuk [x2] anqati nayka tiki wiski [x3] pi alta nayka mash ukuk wiski munk mimElust tilixam [x3] pi alta nayka mash ukuk Rough translation: I used to like whiskey (x3) and now I toss that (away) now I toss that (away) (x2) I used to like whiskey (x3) and now I toss that (away) whiskey kills people (x3) and now I toss that (away) This is another version of the previous entry, with a bit different stanzaic structure and the addition of "ukuk" ("that") as an object of throwing away or giving up. In the anglicized orthography used during the period when CJ (at least in its pidgin form) was widely spoken by whites, the above text might be spelled Ahnkuttie nika ticky whiskey pee alta nika mahsh okoke ... Whiskey mamook memaloose tillikum... |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Jon Bartlett Date: 22 May 04 - 03:02 AM Here's one called "Seattle Illahee": There'll be mowitch and klootchman by the way When we 'rive at Seattle Illahee Row, boys, row, let's travel To the place they call Seattle, Seattle Illahee! There'll be hiyu clams and klootchman by the way Hiyu tenas moosum Till daylight fades away Row, boys, row, let's travel To the place they call Seattle, Seattle Illahee! Kwonesum kwonesum cooley Kopa nika illahee Kunamokst kapswalla moosum as the daylight fades away. Row, boys, row, let's travel To the place they call Seattle, That's the place to have a spree! Seattle Illahee! This was collected by Phil Thomas from the singing of Capt. W.R. Hall, Campbell River, BC 1959 and it's in his book, "Songs of the Pacific Northwest" [Saanichton, 1979: Hancock House Publishers]: we are working on a 2nd edition. There will be a Phil Thomas Tribute Concert at Seattle Folklife this year, and Phil will I hope be coming down and singing this very song. He's got a couple more, too. Jon Bartlett |
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Subject: Re: Red and Black Cafe From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 02:52 AM The Red & Black Café does have a website: http://www.redandblackcafe.com/, but the passage I posted was from a past week's calendar that I found cached on Google. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 02:50 AM I'm in Seattle, darkriver/Doug. CJ used to be pretty universal around here, too. The texts I'm posting are from materials that were handed out at last weekend's chinuk lu7lu, but the two I'm putting up today ("tumala shati" and "wiski shati") are widely known and have been sung in one version or another for generations now. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Whiskey Song From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 02:45 AM Whiskey Song First version:
Rough translation:
E stands for a schwa, a nondescript neutral vowel similar to the "a" in "about" or the "oi" in "porpoise"; I'm not sure whether the letters in parentheses are intended as corrections, or as alternatives, or to represent the actual pronunciation of some singer. One recording of this song gives "whiskey" with a guttural initial consonant almost reminiscent of "Khrushchev" (the sound indicated by the X in "tiliXam" [people]; more commonly the word is written "wiski" and pronounced with an ordinary initial dubya. |
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Subject: RE: Chinook Jargon Songs From: darkriver Date: 22 May 04 - 02:41 AM Haruo, I've looked on the Web, and Red & Black Cafe doesn't seem to have a Web presence, so you must be a Portland local. Are the songs you're posting from the Chinook language gathering? Or from your files, or what? Interesting. At one time had 100,000 speakers? Wow. Doug |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Tumala From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 02:29 AM tumala shati tumala, tumala, tumala nayka munk manak'i-Lush duwi: duwi: Rough translation: "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll do better tomorrow". (As far as I can tell "duwi: duwi:" is a nonsense refrain.) L stands for a "barred l", a lower-case "l" with a wiggly line through the middle of it. Its sound is like the "ll" in Welsh "Llanfair", though its proper appearance is more Polish. Sung over and over again like a 7-11 praise song. |
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Subject: Chinook Jargon Songs From: Haruo Date: 22 May 04 - 02:12 AM Songs in the Chinook Jargon / Chinuk Wawa From a past week's calendar at Portland's Red and Black Café: Chinuk-Wawa or Chinook "Jargon" is the Pacific Northwest's own unique language. It is a mixture of various tribal languages, English and French. 100 years ago, it was spoken by an estimated 100,000 people of all races throughout what some folks call Cascadia.In this thread I hope to present as many as possible of the song texts of this language that was once nearly universally spoken from Oregon to British Columbia, both songs from the old pidgin days of the Jargon, and those in the later (and current) creolized Wawa. Macaronic songs (combining or interweaving texts in Jargon and a tribal language such as English, Chehalis, French or Nuuchanulth) are also eligible, and even English songs with substantial Jargon sprinkled in the text. |
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