Chinook Jargon Essay

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THE CONTROVERSIAL CHINOOK JARGON OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: ITS SOCIO-HISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC IMPLICATIONS & INFLUENCES IN THE 19TH- EARLY 20TH CENTURY CHELSEA POLIGRATIS Abstract This paper addresses two current controversies about the nature and origin of Chinook Jargon. First, linguistic evidence shows various phonological and syntactic features to support the claim that CJ is a true pidgin rather than a jargon - as a speech form with its own grammar. When structural features of CJ, as used by English and French speakers and by Indians, are compared with those of the speaker’s native languages, we see that CJ possesses a grammatical norm that differs from the native languages. Second, the CJ structure that will emerge from this comparative study has historical implications to explore the older controversy as to whether CJ existed before Europeans arrived and set up permanent trading posts in the Northwest United States. The major point here is that these grammatical features of CJ fit well with typological features of Northwest Amerindian languages, but they are markedly non-European. This weakens the case for a post-European origin, since it is hard to explain on the hypothesis that CJ arose from Indian-white communication. Ultimately, because of so many marked non-English and non-French features, evidence suggests that European speakers did not contribute in the formation of CJ. Thus, taken together with historical and other linguistic evidence, the markedly Indian structure of CJ seems to tip the balance in favor of a pre-European origin. Key Words universal principles, lexicon, cross-language compromise, grammatical norm, pre/post-contact origin, pre-European origin, multilingualism, syntax, phonology, simplification, pidginization, intertribal relations, contact medium, tertiary hybridization, universal markedness Introduction The trade
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