Chinook Jargon Phrasebook

Time & The Elements

Chinook-English
English-Chinook

Tomolla - tomorrow
Kopet tomolla or ikt tomolla - day after tomorrow
Tahlklie - yesterday
Polaklie - night, evening (also darkness)
Sun - day, sun
Okook sun, oke sun - today.  Get-up sun - sunrise.  Sitkum sun - noon.  Klip sun - sunset. Tenas sun - early, morning. The Chinook loan-word otelagh (o-otlakh) was also used, but Gibbs says this was not properly a jargon word.
Moon - moon, month
Ikt moon - one month.  Sick moon - a waning moon.
Week - week
Sunday - Sunday
This was the only day of the week that had much social meaning in the frontier era. For modern use, the other English days of the week can legitimately be used, as there were no "weeks" (or days of them) in native culture.  Sunday can also mean any holiday, or any day when a flag is flown (the visit of a dignitary, for example).  The other days of the week were referred to by their number - ikt sun, moxt sun, klone sun, etc. or simply by ikt, moxt, klone, etc. - in the same manner as in Portuguese.
Dil-dil, tsil-tsil, chil-chil - stars (also buttons)

Tiktik - watch, pocketwatch
Tintin - Bell, clock, musical instrument
Mamook tintin - to ring a bell, to play an instrument.  Tintin was used by Indians around Hudson's Bay posts in a fashion similar to the nautical usage, e.g. moxt tintin kopet sitkum sun - two bells after noon.

Waum - warm, warmth, summer
Hyas waum - hot.  Waum illahee - summer. Mamook waum - to heat.  Waum-sick-cole-sick - fever and ague (i.e. influenza).
Cole - cold, winter
Cole illahee - winter.  Ikt cole - one year, moxt cole - two years, etc.  As in most Native American cultures, years were counted in winters.  NB the word Tshiss, tshis was also used for "cold" in the Chinook language area on the Lower Columbia.  NB difference from tshish, chish - to sharpen, sharp, which was onomatopaeoic.

Snass - rain
Makah - rain
Also means snow in some areas. Note that the name of the Wakashan tribe on the outer rainy coast of the Olympic Peninsula are known as the Makah.
Snow - snow
Wind - wind
Gibbs notes that winds are known by the country from which they blow, rather than by compass directions (for which there were no words in the jargon).  Hence on the Columbia an easterly is a Walla Walla wind, a westerly is a Tillamooks wind.  This is the origin of the term Chinook wind in Alberta, which blows in from the "Chinook illahee" - the Chinook-speaking country beyond the Rockies.  In the Lower Mainland of BC, a Chinook wind is a warm, wet southwesterly - blowing in from the Chinook country of the Lower Columbia.
Hyas wind - big wind, gale
Tamanass wind, mesachie wind, - storm, hurricane
Chinook, Chinook wind - a steady southwest wind
i.e. blowing from the land of the Chinook tribe. On the coast this is a very mild and very wet airstream, today known as "the Pineapple Express" for its nominal origin in the area of Hawaii and the heavy rains and mild winter weather that are its consequence. The same airstream, upon reaching Alberta, has been leached out by successive mountain ranges and is so dry and warm it is also called the "snow-eater".
Tenass wind - breeze
Smoke - fog, cloud, steam, smoke
 
 

English-Chinook
Chinook-English

Where more than one Chinook word is given, it is advisable to refer to the Chinook-English section for differing contexts and associations.