[ ENGLISH ]

ENGLISH in AMERICA:

NATIVE AMERICAN WORDS

NOTE: There were over 1,000 different languages in North and South America in 1492. These are now down to at least 600. But most of these speakers are elderly and, in some cases, their language will die with them. Some of the Native American words that have entered the English language (obviously, many of the original words have been well and truly Anglicized) are:

chipmunk / hickory (pawcohiccora) hardwood tree / hooch (Hoochinoo tribe noted for their homemade liquor) / moccasin / moose / papoose (Algonkian) very small / pecan - a pinkish-brown smooth nut / possum (Algonkian) white beast / powwow / racoon / skunk / squash - pumpkin-like fruit / squaw (Natick) female creature / tepee (Dakota) tent / terrapin - edible fresh-water turtles / toboggan / tomahawk / totem / wigwam (Massachuset) their dwelling

PLACE NAMES: Settlers took hundreds of place names (corrupted, of course) from the natives. Interestingly, very few object names were adopted. This is a similar pattern as when the Anglo-Saxons took over Celtic Britain.

• Chicago - Place of the Smelly Onion / Cabbage (is that why it has become known as 'the windy city') / Iowa - ? / Manhattan - Place of Great Drunkenness / Mississippi - Very Big River / Missouri - Canoe River / Oklahoma - The Red Man / Omaha - Upstream People / Potomac (Delaware tribe) Upon a Great Plain. Curiously enough, this name is almost identical to the Greek word for River which is POTAMOS (Thus, Mesopotamia = between two rivers. / Narragansett (tribe) - People of the Small Point (of land) / Winnebago - Filthy Water People.
  [I am grateful to Debra Dombrowski of Alabama for her constructive feedback and improvement to this section]

ESKIMO or INUIT: across the lands of Canada, Greenland and Siberia. The word Eskimo means 'eater of raw flesh'. They call themselves Inuit (The People). They have 50 words for snow (crunchy, soft, old) but not one for plain snow. Equally, they have no generic name for 'Colour' (but have names for red, green, etc) or 'Metal' (but have words for tin, copper, steel, etc).

anorak / igloo / kayak / Klondike = bountiful / good fish??? / parka