Chinuk Wawa

Chinuk Wawa (also known as Jargon and Chinook Jargon) is a hybrid lingua franca consisting of simplified Chinookan, combined with contributions from Nuuchahnulth (Nootkan), Canadian French, English, and other languages. It originated on the lower Columbia River, where it once was the predominant medium of intertribal and interethnic communication. Even after English came into general use on the lower Columbia, Chinuk Wawa survived for generations in families and communities shaped by the meeting of the region’s historically diverse tribes and races.

Resources

Chinuk Wawa: kakwa nsayka ulman-tilixam laska munk-kemteks nsayka / As Our Elders Teach Us to Speak It a modern dictionary.

If you want to hear and repeat the Chinook language you can download this free app, chinuk wawa, for Andriod or iOS devices.

Watch a chinuk wawa TED Talk by Crystal Starr Szczepanski from the Confererated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Our blog, chxi-wawa, has a section on chinuk wawa