CHINOOK WAWA

Back by popular demand; join us for a crash course in the pidgin trade language Chinook Wawa (aka Chinook Jargon)! Once spoken from Alaska all the way to northern California, Chinook Wawa is a mixture of Métis French, English, and First Nation languages from BC and the United States, including Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Chinook. As a pidgin language, Chinook Wawa is a simple means of communication used between people from diverse backgrounds, and it soon became the working language for many parts of BC.

Led by Chinook Wawa expert Dr. David Robertson over the span of four online sessions, by the end of this crash course you should be able to have a basic conversation in Chinook Wawa, recognize the Chinook words we see and hear around us every day, identify the sounds common to the Indigenous languages of British Columbia, and gain a better appreciation for the linguistic diversity of our region!

This time we will also be joined by Metis linguist and language revitalization expert Dale McCreery. Dale is a very skilled speaker of Chinook and currently working to help revitalize the Nuxalk and Michif languages. Join us as he shares both his insights on Chinook Wawa and his experience working with Indigenous communities in the fight for their languages!