Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:53:11.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Handsaw or Harlot? Some problem etymologies in the lexicon of Chinook Jargon*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Barbara P. Harris
Barbara P. Harris*
Affiliation:
University of Victoria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Like all pidgins, the lexicon of Chinook Jargon has a number of sources; although the core vocabulary is chiefly of Chinookan and Nootkan origin, English and French have also made large contributions, the percentage of each varying from time to time and from place to place. As Sankoff (1980: 145) points out, “Chinook Jargon remained highly variable throughout its history. Its vocabulary changed radically over time depending on the locus and proportions of its various groups of speakers, and because of the increasing dominance of English over time.” While most of the lexical items in the Jargon have been more or less satisfactorily accounted for, especially those of French and English origin, there remain a score or so of words for which an etymology either is not recorded or is of dubious accuracy. For some time, I have been attempting to track down the origins of as many of these ‘mystery words’ as possible, or to offer more probable sources than those usually cited. In this paper, I deal only with those items whose origin is apparently in or through French.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Spring 1983 , pp. 25 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper appeared in Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle of the University of Victoria I:2 (June 1981) 218-32. For further suggestions and comments incorporated herein, I should like to thank John Hewson of Memorial University, and two graduate students in Linguistics here in Victoria, Marie-Lucie Tarpent and Emmanuel Hérique.

References

Anon, . (1931) Chinook Jargon as Spoken by the Indians of the Pacific Coast: for the Use of Missionaries, Traders, Tourists and Others Who Have Business Intercourse with the Indians. Xerox copy, no publication information; the date is handwritten on the first page with an indication that this is a later edition of an earlier work.Google Scholar
Bergeron, Léandre (1980) Dictionnaire de la langue québecoise. Montréal: VLB éditeur.Google Scholar
Clapin, S. (1894) Dictionnaire canadien-français. Montréal: n.p.Google Scholar
Clas, André, dir. (1976) Matériaux pour l’étude du français au Canada. Néologismes-Canadianismes, Vol I. Université de Montréal: Observatoire du français moderne et contemporain, Département de linguistique et philologie.Google Scholar
Dictionnaire Bélisle de la langue française au Canada (1952) Société des éditions Leland ltée.Google Scholar
Dionne, N.-E. (1909) Le parler populaire des Canadiens-Français. Québec: La Flamme et Proulx.Google Scholar
Gibbs, George (1892) A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon or Trade Language of Oregon. New York: Cramoisy Press.Google Scholar
Juneau, Marcel (1977) Problèmes de lexicologie Québécoise: Prolégomènes à un trésor de la langue française au Québec. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.Google Scholar
Palmer, Joel (n.d.) “Words Used in the Chinook Jargon.” An appendix to his Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains, to the Mouth of the Columbia River. Cincinnati: J. A. and U. P. James (March of America Facsimile Series, No. 83, 1947).Google Scholar
Potier, Pierre, S. J. (1743-1758) “Façons de parler proverbiales, triviales, figurées, des Canadiens au XVIII siècle.” In Bulletin du parler français au Canada III (Septembre 1904–Août 1905) and IV (Septembre 1905–Août 1906).Google Scholar
Robert, P. (1972) Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française (Le petit Robert). Paris: Société du Nouveau Littré.Google Scholar
Sankoff, Gillian (1980) “Variation, Pidgins and Creoles.” In Valdeman, Albert and Highfield, Arnold, eds., Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, George C. (1909) The Chinook Jargon and How to Use It: A Complete and Exhaustive Lexicon of the Oldest Trade Language of the American Continent. Seattle: Rainier Printing Company.Google Scholar
Thomas, Edward Harper (1970) Chinook: A History and Dictionary of the Northwest Coast Trade Jargon, 2nd ed. Portland: Binford and Mort.Google Scholar
Winthrop, Theodore (1863) “A Partial Vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon”. In his The Canoe and the Saddle, Adventures Among the Northwestern Rivers and Forests, 5th ed. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.Google Scholar
Vinay, Jean-Paul, Daviault, Pierre, and Alexander, Henry, eds. (1962) Dictionnaire Canadien: The Canadian Dictionary (concise edition). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.Google Scholar