1941 Chinook Jargon Transcriptions of Joe Peter and Jack Marr
Our mission as a group is to listen to all of the 30 recordings totaling 10 hours and transcribe as much as possible with the knowledge and technology we have available to us. By doing so, we ensure the language knowledge held within them is available to teach and research from, aiding in the continuation of Chinuk Wawa (Chinook Jargon).
📖 Read our Published UBC Paper16-year-old Jack Marr utilized a heavy-duty portable disc recorder—identified in archival records as a Fairchild—to cut direct-to-disc recordings on bare aluminum.
Originally seeking "Pure Chinook," the project instead captured 10 hours of high-level Chinook Jargon, preserving a unique dialect and a snapshot of fluent 1941 speech.
Part of the Smithsonian's extensive J.P. Harrington papers, these recordings were brought to light through modern linguistic scholarship and community collaboration.