ben novak spring term paper

7/28/2019 Ben Novak Spring Term Paper

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A Historical Analysis of the Record of ChinukWawa

Baejamin NovakUniversity of Oregon

Linguistics 407 Native Languages of Oregon

Spring 2013 Term Paper


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Washington DC to begin his formal study of Native American languages, bringing hisdocuments with him. They now reside with the Smithsonian Institutions special collectionscatalogue.

The dictionary is split into two parts, Part I. Chinook-English and Part II. English-Chinook. For a majority of the entries, data is presented as such:

(1)Ca-po, n. French, CAPOT. A Coat.

Gibbs was thorough in most of his entries, documenting a phonetic spelling, the part of speech,the (hypothesized) language of origin, as well as the etymological root; the entries are quitecomprehensive for dictionary documentation. Further analysis asserts that Gibbs had an evendeeper understanding of linguistic anomalies occurring in Chinuk Wawa.

(2)

Bit, orMit, n. English, BIT. A dime or shilling.

Kun sih, Kan-sih, adv. Chinook, KUNSE`UKH. How many, to count

These suggest that Gibbs was recording allomorphs; less likely (yet possibly) these were stylisticchoices that may have stemmed from stable variables. In either case, it is evident that Gibbs wasaware of, and thought it valuable to record these differences in pronunciation.

One entry in particular displays the ingenuity of Chinuk Wawa speakers. Due to theintroduction of new concepts into the environment semantic widening occurred on a large scale,Gibbs did well to make note of this:

(3)Kul-lagh, orKul-lagh-an, n. Chihalis, KULLAKH; Lummi, KULLUKAHN. A fence; a

corral, or inclosure. Kullagh stick, fence rails. In the original, it meant the stockade with whichIndian houses are often surrounded.

Furthermore, idiomatic expressions were formed, creating the most ingenuitive features ofChinuk Wawa (as exemplified in 4).

(4)De-la`te, orDe-le`tt, adj. adv. French, DROITE. Straight; direct; without equivocation. Ex.

Klatawa delett, go straight; delett wauwau, tell the truth.

The idiom delett wauwau translates literally to tell it straight, a phrase which is not far fromthe English idiom give it to me straight, featuring the French borrowing droite.

Almost 50 years following Gibbs initial efforts to record Chinuk Wawa, George C.Shaws The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: A complete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldesttrade language of the American continent was published by Rainer Printing Company in 1909.Much of the lexical work is soundly rooted in Gibbs work, noted in the introduction:


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Gibbs, This was by far the best dictionary at that time and will ever remain a standardauthority on the language of that time. In the Chinook-English part are 490 words, and inthe Enlgish-Chinook, 792.

As well as building upon this solid foundation, Shaw provided innovative and powerful tools

previously unpublished; the most notable being the Guide to Pronunciation, partnered with a275 word pronouncing vocabulary with diacritically marked letters. Shaw also includedextensive documentation on uncommon words which were perhaps precluded do to the rarenature of their appearance in speech. The following is one such example:

(5)Kun-a-mokst, orKun-a-moxt, adj. prep. (C) (Chinook,-konaway mokst: literally, all two.)Both; together; with; amid; among; beside; besides. Example: Kunamoxt kahkwa,bothalike. Nesika klatawa kunamokst,We will go together. Nika mitlite kunamokst yaka,I

live with him. Chako kunamokst,to join; unite; meet; assemble; congregate;convene. Tumtum kunamokst,to agree. Wawa kunamokst,to consult.

The added context of these entries speaks to the thorough nature and numerous amount ofShaws interactions with native speakers of Chinuk Wawa. It is difficult to say with certainty thatShaw was attempting to create a learning aid for L2 learners of Chinuk Wawa, with intent or not,he compiled extensive documentation supportive of learn Chinuk Wawa.

The marquee of Shaws work is his Guide to Pronunciation:

(6)

(Hale, 1909)

English is obviously limited, but Shaw was forced to record in his most comfortableorthography. Phonetically, the Guide to Pronounciation illustrates the negotiation of phoneticlaws; the languages diverse speaker background made phonetically neutral features a necessity.Glottalized features are softened to h and k, accommodating the European speakers; features


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like the French and English d, f, g, r, v, and z become t, p, k, l, and w.The voiced alveolar affricate /tsh/ became devoiced to /dz/ and the French nasal /ng/ simplybecame /n/. (Hale, 1909)

(7)

These two excerpts from the Pronouncing Dictionary when cross referenced with theindex of vocabulary words provide sufficient materials to begin learning the language; the

diacritic demarcation provides a phonological guide allowing for learners nonadjacent to aspeech community to practice pronunciation. This documentation proved crucial in sustainingthe vitality of the language, many of these learning aids are still used today.

Period Two: the Development of Academic Interest

The turn of the 20th century featured many shifts in scientific theory that promoted a new interestin Chinuk Wawa. Conceptualizations such as structuralism and semiotics, strongly promoted byFerdinand de Saussure, were crucial in bringing the study of native languages into academicfocus. Structuralism made paramount the understanding of human culture; this school of thinkingposits that all that we think, do, feel and perceive are rooted in a larger system or structure.

Structuralism partnered with a bourgeoning linguistic interest in semiotics and how languagesvisually and conceptually synthesize reality, fostered an environment hungry for new linguisticdata.

Franz Boaz, a Ph. D in physics, began his anthropological work in 1888 at ClarkUniversity in Massachusetts. After making multiple trips to the Pacific Northwest, Boaz beganpublishing descriptive studies of Native American languages. (Stocking, 1974) Perhaps hislargest contribution to the field of linguistics is his explanation of the incongruences indialectical variation between native tribes. Boaz proposed that it was not the Inuit peoplespronunciation that differed but rather that English speaking scholars lacked the phonetic systemto appropriately describe the sound. (Berlin et al., 1991) Moreover, Boaz hoped to apply thisperspective to all of the sciences, that bias can be cultural and maybe impossible, to isolate.

Published in 1933, Boazs Note on the Chinook Jargon is one of his many papers thathighlights very specific linguistic features. It exemplifies the newfound interest of academics andthe low level analysis that defined this period. He recorded a number of extinct Chinuk Wawawords some of which were even omitted by Gibbs previous; Boaz then proceeds to explain thecultural process by which these words changed.

mamukto make had acquired an obscene meaning and was not used on the Columbiain polite discourse.


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In academic fashion, Boaz also corrected definitions by citing empirical data and suggesting thatprevious research lacked a full understanding of Chinuk proper and the other contributing nativelanguages.

tl` tired is Chinook, not derived from English; spo`s if, pronounced on Shoalwater

Baypo`s, is probably not derived from English suppose, but a Chnook properconjunction contrary to fact, cf. Handbook of American Indian Language RBAE 40623.The wordkwdi`s whale, is Tillamook or Puget Sound Salish.

To conclude this paper Boaz provides a story told by a Tsimeshian in 1888 written verbatim,with a gloss in English.

(8)

(Boaz, 1933)

This proved to be critical step in the advancement in the academic study of Chinuk Wawa,opening the door for future grammatical, structural, and categorical analysis.

Forty years later, perhaps the most comprehensive linguistic documentation of ChinukWawa was published. Michael Silverstein, known for his popularization of indexicality andlanguage ideologies, was published at the age of 28 by the Linguistic Society of America. Hisarticle in the June 1972 edition of Language, Chinook Jargon: Language Contact and theProblem of Multi-Level Generative Systems, I remains a powerful review and analysis of therecord of Chinuk Wawa. Silverstein makes a clear distinction that he is only examining the

existing linguistic features and that for his purpose, the nativity of Chinuk Wawa is non-central.After a brief history about the routes of trade and areal tendencies toward multilingualism (due toexogamy and other factors), Silverstein positions Chinuk Wawa in relation to other nativelanguages by quoting Hales 1890 published work:

Finally, in the Jargon, as in the spoken Chinese, a good deal is expressed by the tone ofvoice, the look and the gesture of the speaker. The Indians in general contrary to whatseems to be a common opinion are very sparing of their gesticulations. No languages,probably, require less assistance from this source than theirs. Every circumstance andqualification of their thought are expressed in their speech with a minuteness which, tothose accustomed to the languages of Europe, appears exaggerated and idle

Silverstein then begins to describe the phonological inventory, citing Hales work form1848. Silverstein notes that there were multiple layers of accommodation that occurred due to thediverse nature of the phonetic inventories. Lower Chinook had the most expansive and robustphonetic system out of these languages and is placed at the top of the diagram. A majority of thesounds have been filtered down from Chinook through English and French, settling in theChinuk Wawa inventory. Expressed graphically below:


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(9)9(a) 9(b)

In S9(a), the gutturals taken from Lower Chinook (what many consider to be Chinook Proper)go to the voiceless velar stop [k] or the voiceless glottal fricative [h] for continuants; this changeoccurring to accommodate the English phonetic inventory. 9(b) features the French /r/ and

nasalized French [a] which happen to be absent from Lower Chinook and English. As the French[l] and nasalized [a] change to accommodate the English inventory, they simultaneouslyaccommodate the Lower Chinook inventory.This is a rudimentary explanation of the reality. Silverstein concedes:

To use Praguean terminology, there are interlingual archiphonemes which allow, within a broadcategory, wide language-specific (hence speaker-specific) phonological variation for eachcontent unit.

He goes on further to explain that the implementation of these phonological archicategoriescreates a controllable environment that can be measured and controlled. And though it may betrivial it is necessary to take each speakers linguistic background into account when workingwith a language that has no L1 speakers.

Silverstein then uses phrase structure trees to describe the use of NPs, VPs, PPs,pronominal use, and predicate particle.

(10)

(Silverstein, 1972)


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Which breakdown to simply:S = pred (NP) (ADV)pred = VP NPVP = MV (PP) / part / NPPP = ku S

MV = V auxNP = (nom) pron / Snom = (dem) N (S) (NP) / S

This provides a complete description of the grammatical structure of Chinuk Wawa; some issuesarise with transitive and intransitive verbs and the verbing of certain objects or nouns.

The extensive documentation done over the previous 150 years lead to the next era in therecord of Chinuk Wawa. The efforts of every linguist and anthropologist who worked on thislanguage laid the groundwork so that the internet could offer everyone around the world theability to learn vocabulary and gain grammatical competence.

Period Three: Chinuk Wawa OnlineThe third period has the least rigid definition due to the range of sources, methodologies andcontributors. The websites that I have choose to define this period function in three distinctlyseparate ways. The first is a website which harnesses the distribution ability of the internet toadvertise classes and workshops located in Portland. The second is an online lexicon that usesphrases and relies on the learners ability to construct a personal curriculum. While the third isa website that functions like a textbook, with chapters and a path work laid out for the learnerseducation. It should be noted that all of these websites and programs rely almost exclusively onthe work of the linguists aforementioned and that these site are incredible tools created byindividuals and teams that utilized the years of work dedicated to this language.

Chaku-Kmdks Chinuk Wawa (found here,http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/weekend-workshops/) is a Wordpress page created byEric Michael Bernando. The purpose of the site is toinform prospective Chinuk Wawa learners about the program that he and his family offer atPortland Community College. The most distinct feature is what Bernando calls The Pledge:

By coming to any of the classes listed on this website, you must make a pledge to helpus revitalize this language. We are not looking for people to come and learn this languageand then take it elsewhere. We are building a vibrant language community. When youenroll for these classes, you are making the pledge to become not just a speaker ofChinuk Wawa, but a teacher as well. Welcome to the community and thank you for your

support!(Bernando, 2011)

This is a manifesto; it is a statement about their goals. They not only wish to teach the languagebut to create a language community, one that aims to revitalize the language and increase itslinguistic capital. They offer workshops on the weekends as well as three month programs;supporting their overall goal of revitalization, they provide links to other resources includingclasses at Lane Community College.
http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/http://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/


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The Ikt Chinook Wawa Book (located at http://www.cayoosh.net/hiyu/chinref.html) is anonline lexicon and phrase book that facilitates learning through categorical grouping of wordsand phrases. To supplement for a lack of grammatical and pronouncation materials, Mike Cleven(the websites main contributor) offers Guidelines, reading as follows:

Guideline No. 5:The combination "oo" seems to vary from a pure "u" (as in skookum and cayoosh) to adipthong as in book and crook (jargon book and clook). I have heard skookum using thelatter sound, but I'm pretty sure this is a later evolution; certainly in the modernprononciation of the placename Skookumchuck it is more like book, but this is notnecessarily so and may vary. Conversely cayoosh as it is used in theLillooetcountry today is a pure "u", while it may have been pronounced in earlier times more likethe vowel in book. Similarly the letter "u" seems to vary somewhat, from a short "u" (-uh) like the first one in tukamonuk (the second being more like book) to a long onein cayuse.

(Cleven, 2004)

The groupings are common categories of speech many of which are domain specific, a well-documented tactic for L2 learners. (Siegler, 2006) The groupings are: Greetings & Salutations,Common Phrases, Money, Trade, & Travel, Time & the Elements, Food & Domestic Life,Fun & Games, Critters & Livestock, People, The Body, Numbers, Interrogatives,Prepositions, & Interjections, Verbs & Concepts, Adjectives & Adverbs, and Grammar &Prononciation. Cleven makes available his e-mail to contact him about Chinuk Wawa and haseven self-published some poetry and stories in the language.

The third website is The Wawa Press, published and maintained by R. James Holden,this site is a digital version of the book, Chinook Jargon - The Hidden Language of the PacificNorthwest. A .pdf version of the book is readily available on the site and a link is provided to anAmazon Kindle version as well. The chapters are as follows:

Cover- Front and back cover as well as spineForeword- Title Page, table of contents, and forewordHistory - Chapter 1Language - Chapters 2, 3, and 4Topics - Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8Culture - Chapters 9 and 10Vocabulary - Chinook Jargon vocabularyEnglish Reference - English to Chinook lookupNotes - Orthography conversion and wordlistsBibliography - List of most important sourcesIndex - Currently contains persons, titles, and groups

(Holton, 2008)

Holden provides a history of the language offering a brief education into the history of thelanguage and the interactions between native peoples and European settlers. He supplementsvocabulary and grammar with integral information about the culture, history and environment in
http://www.cayoosh.net/http://www.cayoosh.net/http://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/chinook-jargon-cover.gifhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Foreword1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/History2.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Language3.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Topics4.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Culture5.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Ce1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Ec1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Notes.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Biblio.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Index.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Index.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Biblio.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Notes.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Ec1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Ce1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Culture5.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Topics4.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Language3.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/History2.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/Foreword1.PDFhttp://www.rjholton.com/PDFs/chinook-jargon-cover.gifhttp://www.cayoosh.net/http://www.cayoosh.net/


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which the language was spoken. This site seems to be the least active but offers the mostcomprehensive guide to learning Chinuk Wawa.

In Summary

The evolution in the record of Chinuk Wawa stems from the ever-changing motivations linguists,anthropologist, and language learners. The likes of Gibbs, Shaw and Hale began their work,initially, for completely functional purposes. Gibbs created a professional niche by utilizing hishyper-contact with native languages and positioning himself as an expert in those languages. Toaid himself and others he made extensive documentation which later became the basis for allwork on Chinuk Wawa for centuries to come. Shaws work complimented Gibbs initialcontribution by creating language acquisition resources. Injecting cultural, historical, andlinguistic context, Shaw made the language more accessible to language learners. Mostimportantly he created the first inventory of phonetic features, this sparked incredible interest inthe academic field.

As a bourgeoning field, native languages began attracting some of the greatest minds in

achademic linguistics and anthropology. A new fascination with these loosely documentedlanguages created a flood of academic interest; each linguist placing a torch, illuminating thepath for the next who ventured forth to deepen their understanding of these languages. FranzBoaz, who initially began work on Lower Chinuk eventually took a similar approach withChinuk Wawa. He employed narrow transcriptions while extensively documenting everyresource, and meticulously analyzing every modicum of linguistic data in classic Germanlinguistic fashion. Chinuk Wawa was then subjected to Silversteins models of ideology,category and indexicality; his perspective would lead to the analysis of structure trees and therelationships between the grammar, syntax, and most importantly the phonologies of thecontributing languages. With this deeper understanding, of how the language worked, andchanging attitudes towards speaking Native American languages, a new era of revitalization

would emerge.Chinuk Wawa is lucky to have such extensive documentation on all fronts; it offers

resources to those who wish to speak it today. With the advent of the internet, those resources arereadily available to anyone with access to a computer. Perhaps just as important, the internetallows for speech communities to operate at great distances, connecting speakers and creating aconducive environment for learning. Unfortunately, these are not the same benifits that manynative languages share. What the future holds for Chinuk Wawa is not certain. As languagereclamation increases in popularity we may see more tribes learning Chinuk Wawa, as they do atGrande Ronde. It has the potential to be reborn as it once was, a lingua franca; it could functionas an expression of pride, not only for natives, but for all those who call the Pacific Northwesthome. A badge of honor, paid in respect to those who lived with appreciation for each other and

this land, Europeans and natives alike.


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References:

Bernando, M. (2011, January 03). Chaku-kmdks chinuk wawa. Retrieved fromhttp://learnchinookjargon.wordpress.com/

Boaz, F. (1933). Note on the chinook jargon.Lanugage,9(2), 208-213. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/409271

Berlin, Brent, and Paul K. Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Univ of California Press,1991.

Cleven, M. (2004, March 29). Klahowya kopa chinook wawa. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cayoosh.net/hiyu/

Gibbs, G. (1854). "Report on the Indian Tribes of the Territory of Washington." Secretary of War Reportsof Explorations 1:400-449.

Gibbs, George (1863).A dictionary of the Chinook Jargon or trade language of Oregon. Informallypublished manuscript, , Available from Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

Hale, H. (1909). Guide to pronunciation. In M. Eells (Ed.),The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: Acomplete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldest trade language of the American continentSeattle: RainierPrinting Company.

Holton, J. (2008, July 16). Wawa press presents: chinook jargon - the hidden language of the pacificnorthwest. Retrieved from http://www.rjholton.com/

Jones, N. (1972). Seattle. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 94 et. seq. ISBN 0-385-01875-4..Quotation is from p. 97.

Lang, G. (2008).Making Wawa: The Genesis of Chinook Jargon. Vancouver: UBC Press. pp. especially127128. ISBN 978-0-7748-1526-0.

Shaw, G. (1909). The Chinook Jargon and how to use it: A complete and exhaustive lexicon of the oldesttrade language of the American continent. In M. Eells & G. Gibbs (Eds.), Shaw's Dictionary of theChinook Jargon. Seattle: Rainier Printing Company.

Siegler, R. (2006).How Childred Develop, Exploring Child Develop Student Media Tool Kit & ScientificAmerican Reader to Accompany How Children Develop. New York: Worth Publishers. ISBN 0-7167-6113-0.

Silverstein, M. (1972). Chinook Jargon: Language contact and the problem of multi-level generativesystems, I. Language, 378-406.

Stocking, G. W. 1974. "The Boas plan for the study of American Indian languages," in Studies in thehistory of linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Edited by D. Hymes, pp. 45483. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7748-1526-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7167-6113-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7167-6113-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7167-6113-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7167-6113-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7748-1526-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number

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