Chinuk Wawa, also called Chinook Trade Jargon, is an incredibly simple language with like ~1000 words and basically no grammar. It’s a pidgin of several native languages with some english and french influence.
The language was spoken by settler and native alike, until the railroad arrived and English overwhelmed it.
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde built a very nice app to help learn this very important part of our region’s heritage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_Jargon
https://www.grandronde.org/services/education/chinuk-wawa-education/chinuk-wawa-app/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chinuk.wawa&hl=en_US
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