Vol. 44 No. 4 (1996)
Research Article

Chinook Jargon Placenames as Points of Mutual Reference: Discourse, Intersubjectivity, and Environment Within an Intercultural Toponymic Complex

PDF
  • Douglas Deur
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1996.44.4.291

Published 1996-12-01

Copyright (c) 1996 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Chinook Jargon, a pre-historic trade language in northwestern North America, became the primary means of communication between native and white speakers during European exploration and settlement in this region. At this time, many descriptive names taken from Chinook Jargon were assigned to landscape features. Some placenames persist as artifacts of this exchange; assessed in the light of historical and ethnographic sources, they illuminate the character of intercultural discourse on the northwestern frontier. Chinook Jargon placenames exhibit a restricted semantic range, providing intersubjective and utilitarian descriptions of the landscape to facilitate navigation and the location of particular resources. Descriptive vehicles, such as toponymic metaphors, are also reduced to certain “lowest common denominators” between the cultures in contact. It is thus suggested that, in intercultural contexts, speakers must divine certain linguistic and cultural points of mutual reference in order to discuss salient physical points of mutual reference in the landscape.

PDF

References

  1. Ackerman, Brian P., Joanne Szymanski, and Dara Silver. 1990.“Children’s use of the common ground in interpreting ambiguous referential utterances.” Developmental Psychology 26: 234–45.
  2. Adler, Max K. 1977. Pidgins, Creoles and Lingua Francas: A Socio-linguistic Study. Hamburg: Buske.
  3. Basso, Keith H. 1984. ‘“Stalking with stories’: Names, places,and moral narratives among the Western Apache.” Text, Place, and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self in Society. Ed. Edward M. Bruner. Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society,19–55.
  4. Blaut, James M. 1979. “Some principles of ethnogeography.” Stephen Gale and Gunnar Olsson, eds. Philosophy in Geography. Dordrecht, Holland.: Reidel, 1–7.
  5. Boas, Franz. 1894. Chinook Texts. (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 20. ) Washington, D. C. : Government Printing Office.
  6. Boas, Franz. 1933. “Note on the Chinook Jargon.” Language 9: 208–13.
  7. Boas, Franz. 1934. Geographical Names of the Kwakiutl Indians. (Columbia University Contributions in Anthropology 20.) New York: Columbia UP.
  8. Booker, Karen M., Charles M. Hudson, and Robert L. Renkin. 1992. “Place name identification and multilingualism in the sixteenth century Southeast.” Ethnohistory 39: 399–451.
  9. Canada. 1985. Gazeteer of Canada: British Columbia. 3rd edition. Ottawa: Department of Energy, Mines,and Resources.
  10. Collison, William Henry. 1915. In the Wake of the War Canoe: A Stirring Record of Forty Years’ Successful Labour, Peril and Adventure Amongst the Savage Indian Tribes of the Pacific Coast.… Toronto: Musson. Reprinted: Victoria, B.C.: Sono Nis, 1981.
  11. Coombs, Samuel F. 1891. Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon; as Spoken on Puget Sound and the Northwest, with Original Indian Names for Prominent Places and Localities, with their Meanings. Seattle: Lowman and Hanford.
  12. Demers, Modeste, François Norbert Blanchet, and Louis Napoleon St. Onge. 1871. Chinook Dictionary, Catechism, Prayers and Hymns. Composed in 1838 and 1839 by Rt. Rev. Modeste Demers…. Montreal: Quebec Diocese, Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
  13. Deur, Douglas E. 1996. “Learning from linguistics: Toward ontological coherence within models of the communicative function of the built environment.” Beyond Borders: The Geography and Anthropology Interface. Ed. Michael Hawkins and Joseph Dymond. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Geography and Anthropology Society, to appear.
  14. Drucker, Philip. 1963. Indians of the Northwest Coast. Garden City, N.Y.: American Museum of Natural History.
  15. Dutton, Thomas. 1983. “Birds of a feather: A pair of rare pidgins from the Gulf of Papua.” The Social Context of Creolization. Ed. Ellen Woolford and William Washabaugh. Ann Arbor: Karoma, 77–105.
  16. Fee, Chester Anders. 1941. “Oregon’s Historical Esperanto: The Chinook Jargon.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 42: 176–85.
  17. Fiske, Jo-Anne. 1991. “Colonization and the decline of women’s status: The Tsimshian case.” Feminist Studies 17: 509–53.
  18. Ford, Robert E. 1991. “Toponymie generics, environment and culture in pre-independence Belize.” Names 39: 1–26.
  19. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
  20. Gibbs, George. 1863. Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, or, Trade Language of Oregon. New York: Cramoisy. Reprinted, AMS, 1970.
  21. Gordon, Jeffrey J. 1984. “Onondaga Iroquois place names: An approach to historical and contemporary Indian landscape perception. ” Names 32: 218–33.
  22. Grant, Rena V. 1945. “Chinook Jargon.” IJAL 11: 225–33.
  23. Griswold, Gillett. 1970. “Aboriginal patterns of trade between the Columbia Basin and the Northern Plains.” Archaeology in Montana 11:2–3.
  24. Hale, Horatio. 1890. An International Idiom: A Manual of the Oregon Trade Language, or “Chinook Jargon.” London: Whittaker.
  25. Hancock, Ian F. 1980. “Lexical expansion in creole languages.” Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies. Ed. Albert Valdman and Arnold Highfield. New York: Academic Press, 63–88.
  26. Harrington, John Peabody. 1916. Ethno geography of the Tewa Indians. (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, report 29.) Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  27. Harrington, John Peabody. 1942. Chinook vocabulary, Chinook Jargon vocabulary. Field notes, John Peabody Harrington Collection microfilms. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Microfilms, Reel 18,61–499.
  28. Holm, John A. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles, Volume 1: Theory and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  29. Ilyin, Pavel. 1993. “Renaming of Soviet cities after exceptional people: A historical perspective on toponymy.” Post-Soviet Geography 34: 631–60.
  30. Jacobs, Melville. 1932. “Notes on the structure of Chinook Jargon.” Language 8: 27–50.
  31. Jacobs, Melville. 1936. “Texts in Chinook Jargon.” University of Washington Publications in Anthropology 7: 1–27.
  32. Jacobs, Elizabeth Derr. n.d. Field notes. Manuscript, Melville Jacobs Collection, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle.
  33. Jewitt, John R. 1815. The Adventurings and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt: Captive of Maquinna. New York: [publisher not stated]. Reprinted, Seattle.: U of Washington P, 1987.
  34. Lind, Ivan. 1962. “Geography and place names.” Readings in Cultural Geography. Ed. Philip L. Wagner and Marvin W. Mikesell. Chicago: U of Chicago P,118–28.
  35. MacLaury, Robert. 1989. “Zapotec body-part locatives: Prototypes and metaphorical extensions.” International Journal of American Linguistics 55: 119–54.
  36. McArthur, Lewis A. 1982. Oregon Geographic Names. Portland: Oregon Historical Society.
  37. Meany, Edmond Stephen. 1923. Origin of Washington Geographical Names. Seattle: U of Washington P. Reprinted,Detroit: Gale Research, 1968.
  38. Mitchell, Donald, and Leland Donald. 1988. “Archaeology and the Study of Northwest Coast Economies. ” Prehistoric Economies of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Ed. Barry L. Isaac. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 3. Greenwich, Ct.: JAI,293–351.
  39. Moore, James A. 1983. “The Trouble with know-it-alls: Information as a social and ecological resource.” Archaeological Hammers and Theories. Ed. James A. Moore and Arthur S. Keene. New York: Academic Press, 173–91.
  40. Moulton, Gary E., ed. 1990. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume 6: November 2, 1805 - March 22, 1806. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P.
  41. Neuman, Robert W. 1967. “Radiocarbon-dated archaeological remains in the northern and central Great Plains.” American Antiquity 43: 471–86.
  42. Orth, Donald J. 1967. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. (U.S. Geological Survey, Professional Papers, 567.) Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  43. Palmer, Gary B. 1990. ‘“Where there are muskrats’: The semantic structure of Coeur d’Alene place names.” Anthropological Linguistics 32: 263–94.
  44. Palmer, Joel. 1847. Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains to the Mouth of the Columbia River, Made During the Years 1845 and 1846…. Cincinnati: James. Reprinted, Ann Arbor.: University Microfilms, 1966.
  45. Parker, Rev. Samuel A. M. 1838. Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the Direction of the A.B.C.F.M., Performed in the Years 1835, ’36 and ’37 … Ithaca, NY: Mack, Andrus, and Woodruff.
  46. Phillips, James Wendell. 1971. Washington State Place Nantes. Seattle: U of Washington P.
  47. Powell, Jay V. 1990. “Chinook Jargon vocabulary and the lexicographers.” International Journal of American Linguistics 56: 134–52.
  48. Powell, Jay V., William Penn, et al. 1972. “Place names of the Quileute Indians.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 63: 105–18.
  49. Richardson, Miles. 1981. “On ‘the superorganic in American cultural geography*.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71:284–87.
  50. Ross, Alexander. 1849. Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River: Being a Narrative of the Expedition Fitted Out by John Jacob Astor, to Establish thei“Pacific Fur Company ” … London: Smith, Elder and Co.
  51. Ruby, Robert H., and John A. Brown. 1976. The Chinook Indians: ■ Traders of the Lower Columbia River. Norman: U of Oklahoma P.
  52. Samarin, William J. 1986. “Chinook Jargon and pidgin historiography.” Canadian Journal of Anthropology 5: 23–34.
  53. Sapir, Edward. 1912. “Language and environment.” American Anthropologist 14: 226–42.
  54. Sherzer, Joel. 1987. “A discourse-centered approach to language and culture.” American Anthropologist 89: 295–309.
  55. Silverstein, Michael. 1972. “Chinook Jargon: Language contact and the problem of multi-level generative systems.” Language 48: 378–406, 596-625.
  56. Smith, Grant. 1989. “Density variations of Indian place names: Spokane County and the State of Washington.” Names 37: 139–54.
  57. Spoehr, Alexander. 1956. “Cultural differences in the interpretation of natural resources.” Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. Ed. William L. Thomas. Chicago: U of Chicago P,93–102.
  58. Sturtevant, William. 1964. “Studies in ethnoscience.” Transcultural Studies in Cognition (American Anthropologist 66:3, part 2). Ed. A. Kimball Romney and Roy G. D’Andrade, 99–131.
  59. Swan, James G. 1857. The Northwest Coast, or Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory…. New York: Harper. Reprinted, Seattle: U of Washington P, 1992.
  60. Szasz, Margaret Connell, ed. 1994. Between Indian and White Worlds: The Cultural Broker. Norman: U of Oklahoma P.
  61. Thomas, Edward Harper. 1935. Chinook: A History and Dictionary. Portland: Metropolitan Press. Reprinted,Portland: Binfords and Mort, 1970.
  62. Thomason, Sarah Grey. 1983. “Chinook Jargon in areal and historical context.” Language 59: 820–70.
  63. Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1991. “Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 61: 684–96.
  64. USGS. 1993. Geographic Names Information Database. Washington, D.C.: US Geological Survey.
  65. Voloshinov, Valentin N. 1970. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Trans. Ladislav Matejka and I.R. Titunik. New York: Seminar Press.
  66. Walbran, John T. 1909. British Columbia Coast Names. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau. Reprinted, Seattle.: U of Washington P, 1972.
  67. Walker, Alexander. 1982. An Account of a Voyage to the North West Coast of America in 1785 and 1786. Ed. Robin Fisher and J. M. Bumsted. Seattle: U of Washington P.
  68. Winthrop, Theodore. 1863. The Canoe and the Saddle: Adventures Among the Northwestern Rivers and Forests. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.
  69. Wood, W. Raymond. 1980. “Plains Indian trade in prehistoric and protohistoric intertribal relations.” Anthropology on the Great Plains. Ed. W. Raymond Wood and Margot P. Liberty. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P,98–109.
  70. Wurtzburg, Susan, and Lyle Campbell. 1995. “North American Indian sign language: Evidence of its existence before European contact.” International Journal of American Linguistics 61: 153–67.
  71. Zelinsky, Wilbur. 1955. “Some problems in the distribution of generic terms in the place-names of the Northeastern United States. ” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 45: 319–49.
  72. Zenk, Henry. 1988. “Chinook Jargon in the speech economy of Grande Ronde Reservation, Oregon: An ethnography-of-speaking approach to a historical case of creolization in process. ” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 71: 107–24.