The Chinook Jargon was a major pidgin trade language based on Chinook, the
Penutian language of a prominent Indian tribe of what is now the Washington coast.
Though this pidgin almost certainly existed in some form in pre-Columbian times (west-coast Indian oral histories make mention of it, accusing
the Chinook of being too haughty to teach members of other tribes the true form of their language), it truly took off after the arrival of Europeans
put increased communication pressures on the linguistically diverse tribes of the west. At its heyday in the 1800's the Chinook Jargon was spoken by
some 100,000 people, and in fact there are native elders in British Columbia and Washington state who still remember some of the jargon, even though the Chinook
language itself had died out by 1930.
Chinook Jargon Vocabulary
Our list of vocabulary words in the Chinook Jargon, with comparison to words in other Penutian languages.
Chinook Wawa
Description and history of the Chinook Jargon, with language lessons, grammar, and vocabulary.
Chinook Trade Jargon
Online collection of Chinook Jargon language materials including four dictionaries and a language map.
Kamloops Wawa
Chinook Wawa vocabulary written in Duployan script characters ("shorthand").
Chinook Jargon
Article on the Chinook trade jargon, with a linguistic bibliography.
Chinook Language
Quicktime videos of a Chinook man describing the old Chinook language and its influence on Chinook Wawa.
Chinook Jargon
Essay on the Chinook trade language, with links.
The Wawa Shorthand
List of symbols used in writing the Chinook Jargon.
Chinook Placenames:
Chart of place names in Chinook and Wasco-Wishram.
Chinook Wawa Prayers:
Chinook Jargon translation of the Lord's Prayer and other Christian prayers.
Chinook Jargon
Demographic information about the Chinook Jargon from the Ethnologue of Languages.
American Indian culture
Chinook Jargon Vocabulary
Chinook: A History and Dictionary 
American Indian Words
