Chinook, or Native Jargon evolved from many linguistic sources: Native dialects, French, English, Spanish, and remnants of others who passed through.
Early compilers of Chinook were John R. Jewitt, a captive of the Nootka tribe in the 1780s; explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they faithfully recorded their observations in 1804-05; Roman Catholic missionaries F.N. Blanchet and Modest Demers in the Oregon Country; traders and settlers, especially Myron Eells among the Puget Sound Skokomish; author and judge James G. Swan at Port Townsend; and the famous anthropologist Franz Boas on the Oregon and Washington coasts.
The name for the Chinook trade jargon came from Natives living at the Columbia River’s mouth. The Chinook people themselves engaged in slavery, raiding up and down the Pacific Northwest coast for their human cargo. Because the Chinook jargon is flexible and ever-changing there are no hard and fast rules for word spellings. The jargon’s capacity for expression is almost infinite, despite a limited vocabulary of a few hundred words.
Some examples of Chinook: Hyasanhkuttie – A very long time ago. Chuck – fresh water or river or stream. Hah’Lakl – wide open. Klootchman – a woman or wife. Mah’-Kook – to buy or trade. Mem-A-Loose – dead or a cemetery. Pot-Latch – a gift. Skookum – strong, powerful or a demon. Til’-li-kum – tribe, nation or friend. Wawa – speech or to converse.
Some pure forms of Native language still exist. For example, the elementary school at Taholah, on the Quinault Reservation in Washington State, teaches it to youngsters.
Efforts have been undertaken to preserve the Quileute language of the small tribe encircling La Push on the Olympic Peninsula. Quileute is linguistically related to the extinct Chemakum tongue, spoken by Native Americans who once lived along Northern Hood Canal.
Quileutes gave names to everything, and landmarks and landscape features each had their name. Place names were generally derived from appearances or activities at a particular site. For example: Hole in the Rock, Whale Rock, Canoe Pole Getting Place, Resting Place, Empty Creek, Strong Water, Wood Leans on House, and others.
Scholars have discerned 41 distinct sounds in Quileute. Consonants resemble English. Vowels (A, I, O) are pronounced in long or short forms. Puffing and clicking sounds also characterize Quileute speech.
Neighboring Pacific Coast tribes tended to respect each other’s geographical names. If the Makahs used a particular name for a stream near Ozette, for example, the Quileutes would adopt the same name.
The Quileute River has several names along its scenic course: one section is called “Bank Caved In,” another is “Gradual Riffle,” another is “High Place,” and another stretch is known as “Behind the Buttocks.”
Euro-American late-comers have borrowed Chinook and other Native words to use for commercial sites, publications, watercraft, and games. Courtesy shown to Native history and sensibilities has become the norm. And why not? We are the beneficiaries of a rich Native heritage.
A few words from the trading jargon filtered into the language and survived until at least fairly recently. I vaguely remember my grandfather approving of some persons as “good tilikum”, and “skookum” shows up once in a while.