[From the American Anthropologist for January, 1893.] 
NOTES ON THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE. 
BY FRANZ BOAS. 
The Chinook language was spoken along the banks of Columbia 
River from the Cascades down to the Pacific Ocean. Since Horatio 
Hale published his great work on the philological results of the 
Wilkes Expedition, in which he made us acquainted with the lan- 
guages of the North Pacific coast of America, no further material 
on the grammar of the Chinook has been published. 
Two principal dialects of this language may be distinguished-the 
Upper Chinook, spoken from the Cascades to Grey's Bay on the 
northern bank and to a point a little above Astoria on the southern 
bank of the river, and the Lower Chinook, spoken on Shoalwater 
Bay, at the mouth of Columbia River and a little to the south of 
its southern entrance. The Upper Chinook is subdivided into a 
number of dialects, which differ to some extent, while the Lower 
Chinook had only two»?iialects-the Clatsop, which was spoken on 
Clatsop peninsula, and the Chinook proper, which was spoken on 
Shoalwater Bay. The difference between these latter dialects is 
very slight. 
In the following lines it is intended to give a brief sketch of this 
language, based mainly on a series of texts collected by the author 
on Shoal water Bay in 1890 and 1891. The remarks refer to the 
Chinook dialect, but occasional references to the Katlamat dialect 
of the Upper Chinook are given. 
The following characters are used to render the sounds of the 
Chinook language : 
a, e, i, o, u, have their continental sounds (short). 
a, e, i, o, u, long vowels. 
E the obscure e in flower. 
a, e> S °> n» vowels not articulated, but indicated by the position of the 
mouth. 
a as in German Bar. 
a as aw in law. 
6 as o in German voll. 
separates vowels which do not form diphthongs/ 56 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. VI. 
ai as i in island. 
an as ow in how. 
1 as in English. 
11 very long, slightly palatized by allowing a greater part of the 
back of the tongue to touch the palate. 
I posterior palatal I. The tip of the tongue touches the alveoli 
of the lower jaw, the back of the tongue is pressed against 
the hard palate, sonans. 
I, the same, short, surd (Eepsius's t). 
I the same, with very great stress of explosion. 
q velar k. 
Q velar g. 
k as in English. 
k- palatized k (Lepsius's k'}, almost ky. 
kx might be better expressed as a posterior palatal k, between k 
and k'. 
x same as ch in German Bach. 
x x pronounced at the posterior border of the hard palate, with 
d position of mouth. 
x- palatal ch, as in German ich. 
s, c, are evidently the same sound and might be written s' or c', 
both being palatized. c (English sh) is pronounced with 
open teeth, the tongue almost touching the palate immedi- 
ately behind the alveoli. 5 is modified in the same manner. 
d, t,' 
b, P, 
g,k,. 
as in English.; but surd and sonant are difficult to distinguish. 
h as in English. 
y as in year. 
w as in English. 
m is pronounced with semi-closure of the nose and with very 
light compression of the lips. It partakes, therefore, of the 
character of b and w. 
n is pronounced with semi-closure of the nose. It partakes, 
therefore, of the character of d. 
j designates very great stress of the articulation of consonants. 
! designates very great stress of the articulation of consonants 
due to the elision of q. 
8 is a very deep laryngal articulation due to the elision of q. 
a pause. 
It will be seen from this list of sounds that the phonetic system of 
the Chinook resembles closely that of the languages spoken farther 
north on the coasts of Washington aiid British Columbia. We find 
an abundance of guttural sounds and palatized 1's, frequent pauses, Jan. 1893.] 
NOTES ON THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE. 
57 
many consonants pronounced with increased stress, and great varia- 
bility of the vowels. 
Variations of the vowel of the theme of nouns and verbs are due 
to various causes, namely, to emphasis, to diaeresis expressing a 
plural or distributive, or to the endeavor to effect harmony between 
the vowel of the prefix and of the stem, tvll, tired, when em- 
phasized becomes tall: nikct, not, goes through all stages from ticket 
to naket; a^xvll'dkd, he awakes; aixx^r o'yoko, they awake (theme 
- oko} shows the occurrence of diaeresis conveying a distributive or 
plural meaning; ek-ala imo'lak, a male elk (theme -k'ala) ; o'k'dla 
o'pKnp'zn, a male skunk, shows the variation of the vowel of the theme, 
which takes place in order to bring about harmony between the 
vowel of the prefix (e- masculine article, o- feminine article) and 
that of the theme. 
The language abounds in abstract terms. It is particularly remark- 
able that many concepts which we use in the form of adjectives occur 
as abstract nouns only. For instance, it is impossible to say " a bad 
man," but this is expressed by "the man, his badness." The 
Chinook does not say " I am sick," but " my sickness is on me; " 
he does not say "I shoot him," but " the action of shooting him I 
perform it against him." Abstract concepts of this character are 
very numerous. 
There exist a surprisingly large number of onomatopoetic terms. 
Almost all names of birds may be considered such. A long series 
of verbs expressing actions accompanied by a noise or only more or 
less closely related to such noises are undoubtedly of onomatopoetic 
origin. These terms are not subject to inflection ; they are repeated 
in order to express a frequent or repeated occurrence of the action. 
Le^:, to tear; qtut, to tear off; ts/vx, to split; Lxoa'p, to dig; t^mm, 
noise of walking; no noise; he'he, to laugh, are examples 
of words of this class. 
The language has three well-defined genders. The genders are 
masculine, feminine, and neuter, the latter originally designating 
small objects. The gender is denoted by a prefixed article which is 
inseparably connected with the noun. In the dual and plural forms 
there is no distinction between these genders. We find the follow- 
ing articles : 
Singular: Masculine, e- or i-. Dual, c-. 
Feminine, d- or u-. Plural, t-. 
Neuter, i,-. Indefinite, E-. 58 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. VI 
Examples : 
Masculine : e'k'ala, man. eqtq, head. 
igd'ma, bird arrow. ekB,me'tk, bed. 
ikanz'm, canoe. e'qeh, creek. 
Feminine : d^d'kuil, woman. b^b'ixix, sun. 
o'kumatk, baton. dgd'we, raspberry. 
d'kulaitan, arrow. una'Mm, rattle of deer hoofs. 
Neuter: hkiasks, child. xpa'pta, roe. 
sp^'tcam, horn. \a'semilqs, nose ornament. 
htouq, water. ygbxx'l^x'B.mk, person. 
Indefinite: ^k'a'la, a man. spH'kil, a woman. 
Sometimes the masculine and feminine articles are used to dis- 
tinguish large and small objects : 
e'pqunx, large basket. o'pqunx, small basket. 
e'pvnpyyn, badger. o'p^np'gn, skunk. 
The plural has generally the article t-, but often also L-. In 
numerous cases the article remains the same in singular and plural. 
Sometimes the plural has the feminine article, while the singular is 
masculine. 
Plurals with the article t-: eqoa-ine'ne, beaver ; pl., tqoa-ine'ne. 
y^'cgan, plank; pl., t^c'gan. 
igite'tcxala, piece of meat; pl., tgite'tcxala. 
Plurals with the article L-: o'kumatk, baton ; pl., Tjiumatk. 
d'p \_ike, bow ; pl., vp \_ike. 
Plural with the feminine article : ikani'm, canoe ; pl., okunz'm. 
Suffixes denoting the plural are quite frequent. The most im- 
portant is -ukc or -ike. This suffix denoted originally a plurality of 
human beings. When used with numerals and indefinite pronouns 
it always designates human beings : 
ka'nauwe, all; ^kanauwe'tike, all people. 
iqjeyb'qxut, old man ; ^qieyb'qxtikc, old people. 
e^d'k, blanket; t.'o'kkc, blankets. 
-ma originally distributive {-max in Katlamat) : 
d^d^aXy day; pl., Hasp/ma. 
e'may, bay ; pl., 
-nana perhaps only with words designating relationship : 
ogu'^ak, my aunt; yge'^ak^nana, my aunts. Jan. 1893.] 
NOTES ON THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE. 
59 
Sometimes very remarkable, although regular, forms originate 
through the elision of q. For instance, eqet., creek ; pl., t!a!i£ma. 
The theme is -qei.. The q is elided, and owing to this fact the t is 
strengthened. The e is transformed into a on account of the article 
t-. -ma is the plural suffix mentioned before. 
Irregular plurals are not very frequent: 
hkiasks, boy ; pl., tqa.' sosinikc. 
b^okuil, woman ; pl., ta'n^.mckc. 
Certain words occur only as plurale tantum ; they are collective 
terms : 
t.'dz, house; pl., Hb^e/ma (theme, -qui<e). 
txut, smoke. 
naua'itk, net; pl., nazia'itg^ma. 
The dual has the article c-. It has, as a rule, no suffix : 
iqjeyo'qxut, old man ; dual, cqjeyd' qxut. 
^kjackc, child ; dual, ckjackc. 
Some words are duale tantum. In many cases the reason is obvi- 
ous, while in others it remains obscure : 
ckulkulo'Y,, double-headed harpoon. 
c^qxd, double-pointed arrow. 
c'e\xatct, rain. 
ck^ni'm, toy canoe. 
There are no cases. The possessive relation is always expressed 
by means of the possessive form. All local relations art? expressed 
by means of the preposition go (in Katlamat by the postposition/«). 
The indirect object and the instrumentalis are not expressed by a 
separate preposition or by a form of the noun, but by incorporation 
in the verb (see below). 
As the possessive form is closely connected with the personal 
pronoun, I give the latter first: 
I, nai'ka. we two, inclusive, txai'ka. we, inclusive, Ixai'ka. 
thou, mai'ka. we two, exclusive, ntai'ka. we, exclusive, ntcai'ka, 
he, ia'xka. you two, mtai'ka. you, mcai'ka. 
she, axka. they two, cta'xka. they, ha'xka. 
it, ia'xka. 
These independent forms of the pronoun are compounds of n-, 
m-, etc., which are the pronominal stems. 60 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
[Vol. VI. 
The possessive form is derived from these stems, a few forms ex- 
cepted. The possessive pronoun stands between the article and the 
noun. It has separate forms for the various articles: 
MASCULINE. 
Chief. 
FEMININE. 
Chieftainess. 
NEUTER. 
Dog. 
my, itci'xak i'gmana. 
ogu'xak iV.mana. 
yg^/ xezvucx. 
they, ime' xak ;ymana. 
ome'xaki^mana. 
yme'xewucx. 
his, ia'xakj^mana. 
dya' xak j^mana. 
yia'xewucx. 
her, itca.'xakj^mana. 
ogo'xaki^mana. 
yga'xewucx. 
its, i^a'xaki'zmana. 
diat'xaki^mana. 
yga 'xewucx. 
our two selves, inch, itxa' xak j^mana. 
dtxa'xak^mana. 
ytxa' xewucx. 
our two selves, excl., into,'xaki Umana. 
anta/xakj^mana. 
etc. 
your two selves, imta'' xaki^mana. 
dmta'xaki^mana. 
their two selves, icta'xakana. 
octa' xak j'&mana. 
The dual and plural have the same forms which are found in the 
neuter. It appears from this paradigm that the only forms which 
are not derived from the personal pronoun are the first person 
singular and the third person feminine singular. 
Adjectives have always the gender of the noun which they accom- 
pany. They have also always the article, but the feminine is here 
a- instead of 0-, as it is in the pronoun. 
many: masc., e'xau-it; fem., a'xau-it; neut., vy/xau-it; pl., d'xu-it. 
It was mentioned before that most of our adjectives are expressed 
by means of abstract nouns; p. e. : 
a pitiful mau, e'k'ala via'xctuyam = the man his pity. 
a bad woman, o'd'kuil itca'qjatxala - \.^ woman her badness. 
Among the numerals only "one" has the article and conse' 
quently gender. It has also a separate form for human beings: 
All objects except human beings. Human beings. 
i. m., ext; f., aext; n., ; d., ctext; pl., text, m., exat; f., ae'xat, etc. 
2. mokct. am6'kctikc. 
3. von. vb'nikc. 
4. lakt. vla'ktikc. 
Numeral adverbs as well as other adverbs are formed by the suffix 
-e: mo'kcte, twice; ma!\.ne, seaward. 
The verb is incorporating to a degree. The subject, the direct 
and the indirect objects, are all expressed in it. We may distin- Jan. 1893.] 
NOTES ON THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE. 
61 
guish between intransitive, medial, and transitive verbs. The first 
class are formed mainly by prefixing the pronoun : 
noc, I am there. 
moc, you are there. 
ide, he is there. 
de, she is there. 
yoc, it is there. 
The same class embraces the numerous verbs which consist of an 
adjective or noun or an unchangeable (mostly onomatopoetic) term 
and an auxiliary verb. I give here the historical present of such a 
verb : 
U>x an#,'xax, I fall; #dx atx#,'xax, we two (inclusive) fall; #dx 
ant#xax, we two (exclusive) fall; #ox alx#/xax, we (inclusive) 
fall; #dx ante#/ xax, we (exclusive) fall. 
wx am#/xax, thou fallest; ydx amt#,'xax, you two fall; wx amc#/xax, 
you fall. 
hdx ne'xax, he falls ; #dx na'xax, she falls ; #dx a##/xax, it falls; 
hdx ac#/xax, they two fall; #dx nd'xox, they fall, etc. 
The perfect is : 
nkex, I have been ; mkex, thou hast been ; ike'x, he has been. 
ake'x, she has been ; #kex, it has been, etc. 
Transitive verbs always incorporate the object. When subject 
and object, and I may add here, indirect object, are nouns, the pro- 
nouns of the third person having the corresponding genders and 
numbers are incorporated. If the objects are pronouns, they are as 
well incorporated. Subject and object are prefixed, the former pre- 
ceding the latter. While in most cases the pronouns can be readily 
recognized in these prefixes, there are a number of exceptions. The 
prefix of the third person singular masculine and feminine subject 
differs from the pronoun as found in the intransitive verb. Further- 
more, in the combination : subject first person, object second per- 
son, certain modifications are found. I select a few examples in 
order to illustrate the formation of these forms • 
-ukr,, to carry. 
I carry thee, aya'mukv,. I carry you two, aya'mtukY,. I carry you, 
aya'mcuk#. I carry him, ana'yuk#,. I carry her, a'nukl. I carry it, 
an^'t^ukv,. I carry them two, an#'ctuk#. I carry them, an#'tuk#. We 
two, inclusive, carry him, atxga'yuk#. We, inclusive, carry him, 62 
[Vol. VI. 
THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
alxgd'yuky. We two, exclusive, carry him, antgd'yuky. We, exclu- 
sive, carry him, antcga'yuky. 
Thou carriesthim, amd'yuky. You two carry him, amtgd'yuky. You 
carry him, amcga'yuly. 
He carries him, atca/yuky. She carries him, aga'yuky. It carries 
him, axgd'yukE. They two carry him, acgd'yuky. They carry him, 
atga/yuky, Somebody carries him, aqd'yukE- 
The last form serves as a passive. A real passive is not found. 
Whenever an indirect object accompanies the verb the pronoun 
of the indirect object followed by an I, which designates the indi- 
rect object, is also prefixed to the verb. It follows the pronominal 
suffix designating the direct object: 
-dt, to give (probably -o- verbal prefix, and -t direction toward). 
atcilxd'lot, he gave it (masc. objective) to us; a-, historical present; 
tci-, he, -i-, masc. object. ; -lx-, us; -a, probably euphonic; -1-, desig- 
nating indirect object. 
atc^mana' lot, he gave thee to me. 
The indirect relation of intransitive verbs is expressed in the same 
manner: 
e'tcitda aya/nct'lax, I am sick = my sickness is on me. 
Medial verbs are such verbs as may be transitive, but appear 
without an object. They are formed by the reflexive prefix -x or 
-xeI, which follows the subject prefix and precedes the verb. 
na-ixdIqam, he shouts. atcigdlqam, he calls him to himself. 
agio'la, she shakes him. ne'xda, he shakes. 
The verb has not very many tenses. The most important are : 
a- (prefix), the historical present ; ayd'mukh, I carry thee. 
-a (suffix), future ; yamd'kya, I shall carry thee. 
a-x, present, expressing often repeated actions ; aya'inuk^x, I used to 
carry thee. 
• 
There are practically no moods. The imperative of the intransi- 
tive verb is identical with the future, while in the imperative of the 
transitive verb the subject prefix is omitted : ^kha, carry him. The 
interrogative is formed by the suffix -na (dee in Katlamat), which is 
appended to the one mood of the verb. Jan. 1893.] 
NOTES ON THE CHINOOK LANGUAGE. 
63 
All the numerous forms which we find in most Indian languages 
expressed by derivatives, and which we express by auxiliary verbs, 
are here expressed by adverbs, which are followed by the verb in its 
declarative mood : 
qa'doxue, must. 
ai'aq, can. 
qe'xtce, will. 
qxa'oxat,, cannot. 
There are but few derivatives. I found the following: 
Frequentative -a-itx. ax<x'd'toh, he bathes, ayx'o'to^a-Hx, he bathes 
often. 
-I. agio'la, she shakes him. agio'lai, she shakes him 
often. 
Causative -ta-mit. aw'ya-itx, he stands, aqw^a'etamitx, some- 
body places him upright. 
Word composition is not carried on to the same extent as among 
the neighboring languages. The language lacks altogether the 
faculty of incorporating nouns in verbs, which is so remarkable a 
feature of the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages. 
Local affixes are, however, quite numerous and of frequent occur- 
rence : 
-pl, into {-pq in Katlamat) ; a'ydp!, he entered. 
-pa, out of; ayd'pa, he went out. 
-ptck, from sea landward, from the middle toward walls of house; 
a'ydptck, he went up from sea to land. 
-^x, from land seaward, from sides of house toward middle ; a'ydLX, he 
went down to the beach. 
-wilxt, upward; 
-itco, downward; 
-t-, towards speaker; 
-k-, on top of; 
-x-, on ground; 
ayo'wilxt, he went up. 
ayo'itco, he went down. 
ayo'tkyam, he brought it here. 
yokoc, it is on top of. 
e'xdc, he is on ground. 
It is worth remarking that reduplication is entirely absent from 
the language. The unchangeable words (mostly onomatopoetic 
terms) are duplicated (see above) in order to express a distributive- 
i. e., to express that the action expressed by them refers to a plurality 
of objects : 
kjau'kjau atci'tax, he tied them.