February 8th, 2024. Snass Sessions.  William Letter. (no date)

 Snass Sessions 02.08.2024: William letter, no date1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Notes: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “Chinuk Pipa” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: None. We’re not really sure who this William was. A kid? Billy the Kid? 😁 We don’t have much clue where William lived.…

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February 1st, 2024. Snass Session.  Elizabeth Wai letter. ( no date)

 Snass Sessions 02.01.2024: Elizabeth Wai letter, no date1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  First, an extra item for your consideration — This is what an 1836 letter from the mostly illiterate French Canadians of the Willamette Valley, Oregon looked like. I think it has things in common with patterns we find…

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March 7th, 2024. Snass Session. August (no date) Salmon Arm

 Snass Sessions 03.07.2024: August letter (eastern Secwépemc), Salmon Arm, no date1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Notes: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “Chinuk Pipa” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: This August is probably the same writer as we see for other letters in this series! Look and think……

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January 25th, 2024. Snass Session.  Chief Narcisse letter, no date.

 Snass Sessions 01.25.2024: Chief Narcisse letter, no date1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Notes: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “Chinuk Pipa” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: Chief Narcisse wrote several letters that we have found. From Kamloops Wawa, we know Narcisse of Shhkaltkmah was a proselyte (#112, January…

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January 4th, 2023. Snass Session. Celestin Letter

 Snass Sessions 01.04.2023: Unsigned, undated letter, clearly from William Celestin1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Notes: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “Chinuk Pipa” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: It’s virtually certain that the writer here was William Celestin of Salmon Arm, so compare last week’s reading. The handwriting,…

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December 21st, 2023. William Celestin.

 Snass Sessions 12.21.2023: William Celestin, no date1 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Notes: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “ Chinuk Pipa ” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: The prolific William Celestin of Salmon Arm (husband of Adele), an active Chinuk pipa writer for longer than any other known…

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November 30th, 2023. Snass Sessions. Louis James Spuzzum 1899.

 Snass Sessions 11.30.2023: Louis James, Spuzzum, 18991 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Note: Visit Juli Baumler’s webpage of “Chinuk Pipa” (BC alphabet) resources. Background information on this writer: Louis James of Spuzzum is referred to in letter [116.012] and wrote letters [035], [112], [129]. In the Kamloops Wawa newspaper:  March 1894…

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November 18th, 2023. Snass Session: Francois Shilpahan Tappen 1909.

 Snass Sessions 11.18.2023: François Shilpahan, Tappen Siding, 19091 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Background information on this writer: We know quite a lot about Shilpahan. His is a Salish name. It’s perhaps from Shuswap s- ‘nominalizer’ (Kuipers 1974:41) + lep’ ‘to bend down (esp. branches)’ p.201 + -ex̌n ‘armpit, wing’ (p.68).…

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November 11th, 2023. Snass Session: Johnny Noel Adam Canoe Creek 1894.

 Snass Sessions 11.11.2023: Johnny Nawili Adam, Canoe Creek, 18941 David Douglas Robertson, PhD Consulting linguist, Spokane, WA, USA  Background information on this writer:  I haven’t found out much about Johnny Nawili Adam yet.  Note: You’ll see in this letter that he speaks at least 3 languages, and is highly literate, knowing how to write a…

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