VI PREFACE. 



aifairs, liowever; for Dr. Franz Boas, the latest aucl most thorough 

 worker iu the Chinookan field, has his grammar, dictionary, and texts 

 in an advanced state of preparation for publication by the Bureau of 

 Ethnology. His material, collected during 1890 and 1891, was gathered 

 none too soon, for, as will be seen by the extract from the introduction 

 to his legends, which he has kindly permitted me to make and which 

 is given on page 7 of this paper, the opportunity for so doing would 

 soon have passed. 



It needs bat a glance through the accompanying pages to show the 

 preponderance of material, both published and in manuscript, relating 

 to the Jargon over that of the Chinookan languages i)roper, a j^repon- 

 derance so great that, were it proper to speak of the Jargon as an 

 American language, a change of title to this bibliography would be 

 necessary. Made up as it is from several Indian tongues, the Chinookan, 

 Salishan, Wakashan, and Shahaptian principally, and from at least 

 two others, the English and the French, the Chinook Jargon might 

 witli almost equal propriety have been included in a bibliography of 

 any one of the other native languages entering into its composition. It 

 is made a part of the Chinookan primarily because of its name and 

 secondarOy from the fact that that family has contributed a much greater 

 number of words to its vocabulary than has any one of the others. 



Under various authors herein — Blanchet, Demers, Gibbs, Hale, 

 Le Jeune, and others — will be found brief notes relating to the Jargon, 

 trade language, or international idiom, as it is variously called; and 

 the following succinct account of its origin from Dr. George Gibbs,^ 

 the first to attempt its comprehensive study, completes its history: 



The origin of tliis Jargon, a conventional language similar to the Lingua Franca 

 of the Mediterranean, the Negro-English-Dutch of Surinam, the Pigeon English of 

 China, and several other mixed tongues, dates back to the fur droguers of the last 

 century. Those mariners, whose enterprise in the fifteen years preceding 1800 

 explored the intricacies of the northwest coast of America, picked up at tlieir gen- 

 eral rendezvous, Nootka Sound, various native words useful in barter, and thence 

 transplanted them, with additions from the Euglish, to the shores of Oregvm. Even 

 beforetheirday, the coasting trade and warlilce expeditions of the northern tribes, 

 themselves a seafaring race, had opened up a partial understanding of each other's 

 speech; forwheu, iu 1792, Vaucouver's officeis visited Gray's Harbor they fouud that 

 the natives, though speaking a difi'erent language, understood many words of the 

 Nootka. 



On the arrival of Lewis and Clarke at the mouth of the Columbia, in 1806, the 

 new language, from the sentences given by them, had evidently attained some form. 

 It was with the arrival of Astor's party, however, that the .Jargon received its prin- 

 cipal imjjulse. Many more words of Englisli were then brought in, and for the first 

 time the French, or rather the Canadian and Missouri patois of the French, was 

 introduced. The principal seat of the company being at Astoria, not only a large 

 addition of Chinook words was made, but a considerable number w;is taken from 

 the Chihalis, who immediately bordered that tribe on the north, each owning a 

 portion of Shoahvater Bay. The words adopted from the several languages were, 



Dictionary of the ('hiiiook .(ari;(m. \\ ashinglon, 1803. 



