Chinook Jargon
- noun
- /ʧɪˈnʊk ˈdʒɑːrɡən/
:
jerga chinook
- During the fur trading era, Chinook Jargon was commonly used among traders and Indigenous groups for business transactions.
Examples
-
Multnomah rose up on his toes to scrutinize the arrival of Bostons, the name for Americans in Chinuk Wawa/Chinook Jargon.
Academic text (2007) -
Historically, Chinook Jargon served as a bridge language between Indigenous peoples and European settlers.
-
In the Pacific Northwest, many people spoke Chinook Jargon to communicate with each other across different tribes.
Synonyms
A simple mixed language people used to talk in the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally clear: 'Chinook' identifies the people/region or language and 'jargon' denotes a particular set or variety of speech, so together they signal a form of language or specialized speech associated with Chinook. Although the precise historical detail that it is a pidgin mixing Chinook, French, and English may not be deducible, a B1 learner knowing both constituents would understand it refers to a Chinook-related variety of language.
Etymology
Chinook Jargon is a simple language that grew in the Pacific Northwest when Native people, French traders, and English speakers needed an easy way to talk while trading. They mixed words from Chinook, French, and English, so today the name tells us it was a common 'trade language' that many groups used.
