4.Nashaué(Chip.nássawaiïandashawiwi), 'mid-way,' or 'between,' and withohkeoraukadded, 'the land between' or 'the half-way place,'—was the name of several localities. The tract on which Lancaster, in Worcester county (Mass.) was settled, was 'between' the branches of the river, and so it was called 'Nashaway' or 'Nashawake' (nashaué-ohke); and this name was afterwards transferred from the territory to the river itself. There was anotherNashawayin Connecticut, between Quinnebaug and Five-Mile Rivers in Windham county, and here, too, the mutilated name of thenashaue-ohkewas transferred, asAshawogorAssawog, to the Five-Mile River.Natchaugin the same county, the name of the eastern branch of Shetucket river, belonged originally to the tract 'between' the eastern and western branches; and the Shetucket itself borrows a name (nashaue-tuk-ut) from its place 'between' Yantic and Quinebaug rivers. A neck of land (now in Griswold, Conn.) "between Pachaug River and a brook that comes into it from the south," one of the Muhhekan east boundaries, was called sometimes,Shawwunk, 'at the place between,'—sometimesShawwâmug(nashaué-amaug), 'the fishing-place between' the rivers, or the 'half-way fishing-place.'[76]
5.Ashim, is once used by Eliot (Cant. iv. 12) for 'fountain.' It denoted aspringor brook from which water was obtained for drinking. In the Abnaki,asiem nebi, 'il puise de l'eau;' andned-a'sihibe, 'je puise de l'eau,fonti vel fluvio.' (Rasles.)
Winne-ashim-ut, 'at the good spring,' near Romney Marsh, is now Chelsea, Mass. The name appears in deeds and records as Winnisimmet, Winisemit, Winnet Semet, etc. The author of the 'New English Canaan' informs us (book 2, ch. 8), that "AtWeenasemuteis a water, the virtue whereof is, to cure barrennesse. The place taketh his name of that fountaine, which signifiethquick spring, orquickning spring. Probatum."
AshimuitorShumuit, an Indian village near the line between Sandwich and Falmouth, Mass.,—Shaume, a neck and river in Sandwich (theChawumof Capt. John Smith?),—Shimmoah, an Indian village on Nantucket,—may all have derived their names from springs resorted to by the natives, as was suggested by the Rev. Samuel Deane in a paper inMass. Hist. Collections, 2d Series, vol. x. pp. 173, 174.
6.Mattappan, a participle ofmattappu(Chip.namátabi), 'he sits down,' denotes a 'sitting-down place,' or, as generally employed in local names,the end of a portagebetween two rivers or from one arm of the sea to another,—where the canoe was launched again and its bearers re-embarked. Râle translates the Abnaki equivalent,matanbe, by 'il va au bord de l'eau,—a la grève pour s'embarquer,' andmetanbéniganik, by 'au bout de delà du portage.'
Mattapan-ock, afterwards shortened toMattapan, that part of Dorchester Neck (South Boston) where "the west country people were set down" in 1630,[77]may have been so called because it was the end of a carrying place from South Bay to Dorchester Bay, across the narrowest part of the peninsula, or—as seems highly probable—because it was the temporary'sitting-down place' of the new comers. Elsewhere, we find the name evidently associated withportage.
On Smith's Map of Virginia, one 'Mattapanient' appears as the name of the northern fork (now theMattápony) of Pamaunk (York) River; another (Mattpanient) near the head waters of the Pawtuxunt; and a third on the 'Chickahamania' not far above its confluence with Powhatan (James) River.
Mattapoiset, on an inlet of Buzzard's Bay, in Rochester, Mass.,—another Mattapoiset or 'Mattapuyst,' now Gardner's Neck, in Swanzea,—and 'Mattapeaset' or 'Mattabesic,' on the great bend of the Connecticut (now Middletown), derived their names from the same word, probably.
On a map of Lake Superior, made by Jesuit missionaries and published in Paris in 1672, the stream which is marked on modern maps as 'Rivière aux Traines' or 'Train River,' is named 'R.Mataban.' The small lake from which it flows is the 'end of portage' between the waters of Lake Michigan and those of Lake Superior.
7.Chabenuk, 'a bound mark'; literally, 'that which separates or divides.' A hill in Griswold, Conn., which was anciently one of the Muhhekan east bound-marks, was calledChabinunk, 'Atchaubennuck,' and 'Chabunnuck.' The village of praying Indians in Dudley (now Webster?) Mass., was namedChabanakongkomuk(Eliot, 1668,) or-ongkomum, and the Great Pond still retains, it is said, the name of Chaubenagungamaug (chabenukong-amaug?), "the boundary fishing-place." This pond was a bound mark between the Nipmucks and the Muhhekans, and was resorted to by Indians of both nations.
III. Participials and verbals employed as place-names may generally, as was before remarked, be referred to one or the other of the two preceding classes. The distinction between noun and verb is less clearly marked in Indian grammar than in English. The nameMushauwomuk(corrupted toShawmut) may be regarded as a participle from the verbmushau[oo]m(Narr.mishoonhom) 'he goes by boat,'—or as a noun, meaning 'a ferry,'—or as a name of the first class, compounded of the adjectivalmush[oo]-n, 'boat or canoe,' andwom[oo]-uk, habitual or customarygoing, i.e., 'where there is going-by-boat.'
The analysis of names of this class is not easy. In most cases, its results must be regarded as merely provisional. Without some clue supplied by history or tradition and without accurate knowledge of the locality to which the name belongs, oris supposedto belong, one can never be certain of having found the right key to the synthesis, however well it may seem to fit the lock. Experience Mayhew writing from Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard, in 1722, gives the Indian name of the place where he was living asNimpanickhickanuh. If he had not added the information that the name "signifies in English,The place of thunder clefts," and that it was so called "because there was once a tree there split in pieces by the thunder," it is not likely that any one in this generation would have discovered its precise meaning,—though it might have been conjectured thatneimpau, ornimbau, 'thunder,' made a part of it.
Quilútámendewas (Heckewelder tells us[78]) the Delaware name of a place on the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, where, as the Indians say, "in their wars with the Five Nations, they fell by surprise upon their enemies. The word or name of this place is therefore,Where we came unawares upon them, &c." Without the tradition, the meaning of the name would not have been guessed,—or, if guessed, would not have been confidently accepted.
The difficulty of analyzing such names is greatly increased by the fact that they come to us in corrupt forms. The same name may be found, in early records, written in a dozen different ways, and some three or four of these may admit of as many different translations. Indian grammaticalsynthesis wasexact. Every consonant and every vowel had its office and its place. Not one could be dropped or transposed, nor could one be added, withoutchange of meaning. Now most of the Indian local names were first written by men who cared nothing for their meaning and knew nothing of the languages to which they belonged. Of the few who had learned to speak one or more of these languages, no two adopted the same way of writing them, and no one—John Eliot excepted—appears to have been at all careful to write the same word twice alike. In the seventeenth century men took considerable liberties with the spelling of their own surnames and very large liberty with English polysyllables—especially with local names. Scribes who contrived to find five or six ways of writing 'Hartford' or 'Wethersfield,' were not likely to preserve uniformity in their dealings with Indian names. A few letters more or less were of no great consequence, but, generally, the writers tried to keep on the safe side, by putting in as many as they could find room for; prefixing acto everyk, doubling everywandg, and tacking on a superfluous finale, for good measure.
In some instances, what is supposed to be an Indian place-name is in fact apersonalname, borrowed from some sachem or chief who lived on or claimed to own the territory. Names of this class are likely to give trouble to translators. I was puzzled for a long time by 'Mianus,' the name of a stream between Stamford and Greenwich,—till I remembered thatMayano, an Indian warrior (who was killed by Capt. Patrick in 1643) had lived hereabouts; and on searching the Greenwich records, I found the stream was first mentioned asMoyannoesandMehanno'screek, and that it bounded 'Moyannoe's neck' of land.Moosupriver, which flows westerly through Plainfield into the Quinebaug and which has given names to a post-office and factory village, was formerlyMoosup'sriver,—Moosup orMaussupbeing one of the aliases of a Narragansett sachem who is better known, in the history of Philip's war, as Pessacus. Heckewelder[79]restores 'Pymatuning,' the name of a place in Pennsylvania, to the Del. 'Pihmtónink,' meaning, "the dwelling place of the man with the crooked mouth, or the crooked man's dwelling place," and adds, that he "knew the man perfectly well," who gave this name to the locality.
Some of the examples which have been given,—such asHigganum,Nunkertunk,Shawmut,SwamscotandTiticut,—show how the difficulties of analysis have been increased by phonetic corruption, sometimes to such a degree as hardly to leave a trace of the original. Another and not less striking example is presented bySnipsic, the modern name of a pond between Ellington and Tolland. If we had not access to Chandler's Survey of the Mohegan Country, made in 1705, who would suppose that 'Snipsic' was the surviving representative ofMoshenupsuck, 'great-pond brook' or (literally) 'great-pond outlet,' at the south end ofMoshenupsorMashenips'great pond?' The territories of three nations, the Muhhekans, Nipmucks and River Indians, ran together at this point.
'Nameroake,' 'Namareck' or 'Namelake,' in East Windsor, was transformed toMay-luck, giving to a brook a name which 'tradition' derives from the 'luck' of a party of emigrants who came in 'May' to the Connecticut.[80]The original name appears to have been the equivalent of 'Nameaug' or 'Nameoke' (New London), and to mean 'the fishing place,'—n'amaugornama-ohke.
But none of these names exhibits a more curious transformation than that of 'Bagadoose' or 'Bigaduce,' a peninsula on the east side of Penobscot Bay, now Castine, Me. Williamson's History of Maine (ii. 572) states on the authority of Col. J. Wardwell of Penobscot, in 1820, that this point bore the name of a former resident, a Frenchman, one 'Major Biguyduce.' Afterwards, the historian was informed that 'Marche bagyduce' was an Indian word meaning 'no goodcove.' Mr. Joseph Williamson, in a paper in the Maine Historical Society's Collections (vol. vi. p. 107) identifies this name with theMatchebiguatusof Edward Winslow's quitclaim to Massachusetts in 1644,[81]and correctly translates the prefixmatcheby 'bad,' but adds: "WhatBiguatusmeans, I do not know." Purchas mentions 'Chebegnadose,' as an Indian town on the 'Apananawapeske' or Penobscot.[82]Râle gives, as the name of the place on "the river where M. de Gastin [Castine] is,"Matsibig[oo]ad[oo]ssek, and on his authority we may accept this form as nearly representing the original. The analysis now becomes more easy.Matsi-anbaga[oo]at-ek, means 'at the bad-shelter place,—badcovertor cove;' andmatsi-anbaga[oo]at[oo]s-ekthe diminutive, 'at the small bad-shelter place.' About two miles and a half above the mouth of the Kenebec was a place called by the Indians 'Abagadusset' or 'Abequaduset'—the same name without the prefix—meaning 'at the cove, or place of shelter.'
The adjectivals employed in the composition of Algonkin names are very numerous, and hardly admit of classification. Noun, adjective, adverb or even an active verb may, with slight change of form, serve as a prefix. But, as was before remarked, every prefix, strictly considered, is an adverb or must be construed as an adverb,—the synthesis which serves as a name having generally the verb form. Some of the most common of these prefixes have been mentioned on preceding pages. A few others, whose meanings are less obvious and have been sometimes mistaken by translators, may deserve more particular notice.
1.Pohqui,pohquae´; Narr.pâuqui; Abn.p[oo]'k[oo]ié; 'open,' 'clear' (primarily, 'broken'). In composition withohke, 'land,' or formed as a verbal in-aug, it denotes 'cleared land' or 'an open place:' as in the names variously written 'Pahquioque,' 'Paquiaug;' 'Pyquaag;' 'Poquaig,' 'Payquaoge,' &c., in Danbury and Wethersfield, and in Athol, Mass.
2.Pahke(Abn.pang[oo]i,) 'clear,' 'pure'. Found withpaug, 'standing water' or 'pond,' in such names as 'Pahcupog,' 'Paquabaug,' &c. Seepage 16.
3.Pâguan-aü, 'he destroys,' 'he slaughters' (Narr.paúquana, 'there is a slaughter') in composition withohkedenotes 'place of slaughter' or 'of destruction,' and commemorates some sanguinary victory or disastrous defeat. This isprobablythe meaning of nearly all the names written 'Poquannoc,' 'Pequannoc,' 'Pauganuck,' &c., of places in Bridgeport (Stratfield), Windsor and Groton, Conn., and of a town in New Jersey. Some of these, however, may possibly be derived frompaukunniandohke, 'dark place.'
4.Pemi(Abn.pemai-[oo]i; Del.pimé-u; Cree,peemé;) denotes deviation from a straight line; 'sloping,' 'aslant,' 'twisted.'Pummeeche(Cree,pimich; Chip.pemiji; Abn.pemetsi;) 'crosswise; traverse.' Eliot wrote 'pummeeche may' for 'cross-way,' Obad. 14; andpumetshin(literally, 'it crosses') for 'a cross,' as inup-pumetshin-eum, 'his cross,' Luke xiv. 27.Pemiji-gomeorPemiji-guma, 'cross water,' is the Chippewa name for a lake whose longest diameter crosses the general course of the river which flows through it,—which stretchesacross, notwiththe stream. There is such a lake in Minnesota, near the sources of the Mississippi, just below the junction of the two primary forks of that river; another ('Pemijigome') in the chain of small lakes which are the northern sources of the Manidowish (and Chippewa) River in Wisconsin, and still another near the Lacs des Flambeaux, the source of Flambeau River, an affluent of the Manidowish.
The same prefix or its equivalent occurs in the name of a lake in Maine, near the source of the Alligash branch of St. John's River. Mr. Greenleaf, in a list of Indian names made in 1823,[83]gave this as "Baam´chenun´gamoorAhp´moojee`negmook." Thoreau[84]was informed by his Penobscotguide, that the name "means 'Lake that is crossed;' because the usual course lies across, not along it." There is another "Cross Lake," in Aroostook county, near the head of Fish River. We seem to recognize, and with less difficulty, the same prefix inPemigewasset, but the full composition of that name is not clear.
Pemi-denotes, not acrossing ofbutdeviation froma straight line, whether vertical or horizontal. In place-names it may generally be translated by 'sloping' or 'aslant;' sometimes by 'awry' or 'tortuous.'Pemadené, which Râle gives as the Abnaki word for 'mountain,' denotes aslopingmountain-side (pemi-adené), in distinction from one that is steep or precipitous. 'Pemetiq,' the Indian name of Mount Desert Island, as written by Father Biard in 1611, is the Abnakipeme'teki, 'sloping land.'Pemaquidappears to be another form of the word which Râle wrote 'Pemaankke,' meaning (with the locative suffix) 'at the place where the land slopes;' where "le terre penche; est en talus."[85]Pymatuning, in Pennsylvania, is explained by Heckewelder, as "the dwelling place of the man with the crooked mouth;Pihmtónink" (frompimeuand't[oo]n).
Wanashque,Anasqui, 'at the extremity of,' 'at the end;' Abn.[oo]anask[oo]i[oo]i, 'au bout;' Cree,wánnusk[oo]tch; Chip.ishkuè,eshqua. See (pp.18,19,)Wanashqu-ompsk-ut,Wonnesquam,[86]Winnesquamsaukit,Squamscot.Wonasquatucket, a small river which divides North Providence and Johnston, R.I., retains the name which belonged to the point at which it enters an arm of Narragansett Bay (or Providence River), 'at the end of the tidal-river.' A stream in Rochester, Mass., which empties into the head of an inlet from Buzzard's Bay, received the same name.Ishquagoma, on the upper EmbarrasRiver, Minnesota, is the 'end lake,' the extreme point to which canoes go up that stream.
Names offishessupply the adjectival components of many place-names on the sea-coast of New England, on the lakes, and along river-courses. The difficulty of analyzing such names is the greater because the same species of fish was known by different names to different tribes. The more common substantivals are-amaug, 'fishing place;-tukorsipu, 'river;'ohke, 'place;' Abn.-kantti, 'place of abundance;' and-keag,-keke, Abn.-khigé, which appears to denote a peculiarmode of fishing,—perhaps, by aweir;[87]possibly, aspearing-place.
From the genericnamaus(namohs, El.; Abn.namés; Del.namees;) 'a fish'—but probably, one of thesmallersort, for the form is a diminutive,—come such names asNameokeorNameaug(New London), fornamau-ohke, 'fish country;'NamasketorNamasseket(on Taunton River, in Middleborough, Mass.) 'at the fish place,' a favorite resort of the Indians of that region;Namaskeak, now Amoskeag, on the Merrimack, andNam'skeketorSkeekeet, in Wellfleet, Mass.
M'squammaug(Abn.mesk[oo]amék[oo]), 'red fish,' i.e. salmon, gave names to several localities.MisquamacuckorSquamicut, now Westerly, R.I., was 'a salmon place' of the Narragansetts. The initialmoften disappears; and sometimes, so much of the rest of the name goes with it, that we can only guess at the original synthesis. 'Gonic,' a post office and railroad station, near Dover, N.H., on the Cocheco river, was once 'Squammagonic,'—and probably, a salmon-fishing place.
Kaúposh(Abn.kabassé, plu.kabassak), 'sturgeon,' is a component of the nameCobbosseecontee, in Maine (page 26, ante), 'where sturgeons are plenty;' andCobscook, an arm of Passamaquoddy Bay, Pembroke, Me., perhaps stands forkabassakhigé, 'sturgeon-catching place.'
AumsuogorOmmissuog(Abn.anms[oo]ak), 'small fish,'—especially alewives and herrings,—is a component of the name of the Abnaki village on the Kennebec,Anmes[oo]k-kantti; ofMattammiscontis, a tributary of the Kennebec (seep. 25, ante), andprobably, ofAmoscogginandAmoskeag.
Qunnôsu(pl.-suog;Abn.k[oo]n[oo]sé;Old Alg.kinonjé; Chip.keno´zha;) is found in the name ofKenosha, a town and county in Wisconsin; perhaps, inKenjuaorKenzuacreek and township, in Warren county, Pa.QuinshepaugorQuonshapauge, in Mendon, Mass., seems to denote a 'pickerel pond' (qunnosu-paug).Maskinongé, i.e.massa-kinonjé, 'great pike' or maskelunge, names a river and lake in Canada.
Pescatum, said to mean 'pollock,' occurs as an adjectival inPeskadamioukkantti, the modernPassamaquoddy(p. 26).
Nahanm[oo], the Abnaki name of the 'eel,' is found in "Nehumkeag, the English of which isEel Land, ... a stream or brook that empties itself into Kennebec River," not far from Cobbissecontee.[88]This brook was sometimes called by the English,Nehumkee. The Indian name of Salem, Mass., wasNehumkekeorNaümkeag, and a place on the Merrimac, near the mouth of Concord River (now in Lowell, I believe,) had the same name,—written,Naamkeak.
In view of the illustrations which have been given, we repeat what was stated in the beginning of this paper, that Indian place-names are notproper names, that is unmeaning marks, but significantappellatives, each conveying adescriptionof the locality to which it belongs. In those parts of the country where Indian languages are still spoken, the analysis of such names is comparatively easy. Chippewa, Cree, or (in another family) Sioux-Dakota geographical names may generally be translated with as little difficulty as other words or syntheses in the same languages. In New England, and especially in our part of New England, the case is different.We can hardly expect to ascertain the meaning of all the names which have come down to us from dead languages of aboriginal tribes. Some of the obstacles to accurate analysis have been pointed out. Nearly every geographical name has been mutilated or has suffered change. It would indeed be strange if Indian polysyntheses, with their frequent gutturals and nasals, adopted from unwritten languages and by those who were ignorant of their meanings, had been exempted from the phonetic change to which all language is subject, as a result of the universal disposition "to put more facile in the stead of more difficult sounds or combination of sounds, and to get rid altogether of what is unnecessary in the words we use."[89]What Professor Haldeman callsotosis, 'that error of the ear by which words are perverted to a more familiar form,'[90]has effected some curious transformations.Swatara,[91]the name of a stream in Pennsylvania, becomes 'Sweet Arrow;' thePotopacoof John Smith's map (p[oo]tuppâg, a bay or cove; Eliot,) on a bend of the Potomac, is naturalized as 'Port Tobacco.'Nama'auke, 'the place of fish' in East Windsor, passes throughNamerackandNamalaketo the modern 'May Luck.'Moskitu-auke, 'grass land,' in Scituate, R.I., gives the name of 'Mosquito Hawk' to the brook which crosses it.[92]
In Connecticut and Rhode Island special causes operated to corrupt and transform almost beyond possibility of recognition, many of the Indian place names. Five different dialects at least were spoken between Narragansett Bay and the Housatonic River, at the time of the first coming of the English. In early deeds and conveyances in the colonial and in local records, we find the same river, lake, tract of land or bound-mark named sometimes in the Muhhekan, sometimes in the Narragansett, or Niantic, or Nipmuck, or Connecticut valley, or Quinnipiac (Quiripee) dialect. The adopted name is oftenextra-limitaryto the tribe by which it was given. Often, it is a mixture of, or a sort of compromise between, two dialects; half Muhhekan, half Narragansett or Nipmuck. In the form in which it comes to us, we can only guess from what language or languages it has been corrupted.
The analysis of those names even whose composition appears to be most obvious must be accepted asprovisionalmerely. The recovery of a lost syllable or of a lost guttural or nasal, the correction of a false accent even, may give to the synthesis another and hitherto unsuspected meaning. It would be surprising if some of the translations which have been hazarded in this paper do not prove to be wide of theirmark. Even English etymology is not reckoned among the exact sciences yet,—and in Algonkin, there is the additional disadvantage of having no Sanskrit verbs "to go," to fall back on as a last resort.
Recent manifestations of an increasing interest in Indian onomatology, or at least of awakened curiosity to discover the meanings of Indian names, may perhaps justify the writer in offering, at the close of this paper, a few suggestions, as to the method of analysis which appears most likely to give correct results, and as to the tests by which to judge of theprobabilitythat a supposed translation of any name is the true one.
1. The earliest recorded form of the name should be sought for, and every variation from it should be noted. These should be taken so far as possible from original manuscripts, not from printed copies.
2. Where the difference of forms is considerable, knowledge of the character and opportunities of the writer may sometimes determine the preference of one form to others, as probably the most accurate. A Massachusetts or Connecticut name written by John Eliot or Experience Mayhew—or by the famous interpreter, Thomas Stanton—may safely be assumed to represent the original combination of sounds more exactly than the form given it by some town-recorder, ignorant of the Indian language and who perhaps did not always write or spell his own correctly.
3. The name should be considered with some reference to the topographical features of the region to which it belongs. These may sometimes determine the true meaning when the analysis is doubtful, or may suggest the meaning which would otherwise have been unsuspected under the modern form.
4. Remembering that every letter or sound had its value,—if, in the analysis of a name, it becomes necessary to get rid of a troublesome consonant or vowel by assuming it to have been introduced 'for the sake of euphony,'—it is probable that the interpretation so arrived at isnotthe right one.
5. The components of every place-name—or to speak more generally, the elements of every Indian synthesis aresignificant roots, not merefractions of wordsarbitrarily selected for new combinations. There has been no more prolific source of error in dealings with the etymology and the grammatical structure of the American languages than that one-sided view of the truth which was given by Duponceau[93]in the statement that "one or more syllables of each simple word are generally chosen and combined together, in one compound locution, often leaving out the harsh consonants for the sake of euphony,"—and repeated by Heckewelder,[94]when he wrote, that "in the Delaware and other American languages, parts or parcels of different words, sometimes a single sound or letter, are compounded together in an artificial manner so as to avoid the meeting of harsh or disagreeable sounds," &c. The "single sound or letter" the "one or more syllables," were chosen not as "part or parcel" of a word but because of theirinherent significance. The Delaware "Pilape, a youth," isnot—as Heckewelder and Duponceau represented it to be[95]—"formed frompilsit, chaste, innocent, andlenape, a man," but frompil-(Mass.pen-, Abn.pir-,) strange, novel,unused(and hence) pure,—and-anpe(Mass.-omp, Abn.anbé) a male,vir. It is true that the same roots are found in the two wordspil-sit(a participle of the verb-adjectivepil-esu, 'he is pure,') andlen-anpe, 'common man:' but the statement that "one or more syllables" aretaken fromthese words to formPilapeis inaccurate and misleading. It might with as much truth be said that the English wordboyhoodis formed from selected syllables of boy-ish and man-hood; or that purity 'compounds together in an artificial manner' fractions ofpurify and quality.
We meet with similar analyses in almost every published list of Indian names. Some examples have been given inthe preceding pages of this paper,—as in the interpretation of 'Winnipisiogee' (p. 32) by 'the beautiful water of the high place,'sorēsbeing regarded as the fractional representative of 'kees, high.'Pemigewassethas been translated by 'crooked place of pines' and 'crooked mountain pine place,'—as ifk[oo]-a, 'a pine,' or its pluralk[oo]-ash, could dispense in composition with its significant base,k[oo], and appear by a grammatical formative only.
6. No interpretation of a place-name is correct which makesbad grammarof the original. The apparatus of Indian synthesis was cumbersome and perhaps inelegant, but it was nicely adjusted to its work. The grammatical relations of words were never lost sight of. The several components of a name had their established order, not dependent upon the will or skill of the composer. When we read modern advertisements of "cheap gentlemen's traveling bags" or "steel-faced carpenters' claw hammers," we may construe such phrases with a latitude which was not permitted to the Algonkins. If 'Connecticut' means—as some have supposed it to mean—'long deer place,' it denotes a place wherelong deerabounded; if 'Piscataqua' was named 'great deer river,' it was because the deer foundinthat river were of remarkable size. 'Coaquanock' or, as Heckewelder wrote it, 'Cuwequenaku,' the site of Philadelphia, may mean 'pine long-place' but cannot mean 'long pine-place' or 'grove of long pine trees.' If 'Pemigewasset' is compounded of words signifying 'crooked,' 'pines,' and 'place,' it denotes 'a place of crooked pines,'—not 'crooked place of pines.'
Again—every Indian name iscomplete within itself. A mere adjectival or qualificative cannot serve independently, leaving the real ground-word to be supplied by the hearer. River names must contain some element which denotes 'river;' names of lakes or ponds something which stands for 'lake' or 'pond.' The Indians had not our fashion of speech which permits Hudson's River to be called 'the Hudson,' drops the word 'lake' from 'Champlain' or 'Erie,' and makes "the Alleghanies" a geographical name. This differencemust not be lost sight of, in analysis or translation.AgawamorAuguan(a name given to several localities in New England where there are low flat meadows or marshes,) cannot be the equivalent of the Abnakiag[oo]ann, which means 'a smoke-dried fish,'[96]—thoughag[oo]anna-kior something like it (if such a name should be found), might mean 'smoked-fish place.'Chickahominydoes not stand for 'great corn,' norPawcatuckfor 'much or many deer;'[97]because neither 'corn' nor 'deer' designatesplaceor implies fixed location, and therefore neither can be made the ground-word of a place-name.AndroscogginorAmoscogginis not from the Abnaki 'amaskohegan, fish-spearing,'[98]for a similar reason (and moreover, because the termination-hēgandenotes always aninstrument, never anactionor aplace; it may belong to 'a fish-spear,' but not to 'fish spearing' nor to the locality 'where fish are speared.')
7. The locative post-position,-et,-itor-ut,[99]meansin,atoron,—not 'land' or 'place.' It locates, not the object to the name of which it is affixed, butsomething elseas related to that object,—which must be of such a nature that location can be predicated of it.Animate nouns, that is, names of animate objects cannot receive this affix. 'At the rock' (ompsk-ut), 'at the mountain' (wadchu-ut), or 'in the country' (ohk-it,auk-it), is intelligible, in Indian or English; 'at the deer,' 'at the bear,' or 'at the sturgeons,' would be nonsense in any language. When animate nouns occur in place-names, they receive the formative of verbals, or serve as adjectival prefixes to some localizing ground-word or noun-generic.
8. Finally,—in the analysis of geographical names, differences oflanguageanddialectmust not be disregarded. In determining the primary meaning of roots, great assistance may be had by the comparison of derivatives in nearly related languages of the same stock. But in American languages, the diversity of dialects is even more remarkable than the identity and constancy of roots. Every tribe, almost every village had its peculiarities of speech. Names etymologically identical might have widely different meanings in two languages, or even in two nations speaking substantially the same language. The eastern Algonkin generic name for 'fish' (nâma-us, Del.namai-s) is restricted by northern and western tribes to a single species, the sturgeon (Chip.namai´,) asthefish, par excellence.Attuk, in Massachusetts was the common fallow-deer,—in Canada and the north-west the caribou or reindeer. The Abnaki Indian called hisdog(atié) by a name which the Chippewa gives hishorse(oti-un;n'di, my horse).[100]The most common noun-generic of river names in New England (-tuk, 'tidal river') occurs rarely in those of Pennsylvania and Virginia, where it is replaced by-hanne('rapid stream'), and is unknown to western Algonkin tribes whose streams are undisturbed by tides. The analysis of a geographical name must be sought in the language spoken by the name-givers. The correct translation of a Connecticut or Narragansett name is not likely to be attained by searching for its several components in a Chippewa vocabulary; or of the name of a locality near Hudson's River, by deriving its prefix from an Abnaki adverb and its ground-word from a Chippewa participle,—as was actually done in a recently published list of Indian names.
Abagadusset, Abequaduset,39
Abnaki,7
-acadie,26,27
Acawme-,10
Accomack,10
-adchu, -achu,20
-adené,21
Agamenticus,10
Agoncy,28
Ahquedne,23
Akoode-,28
Alleghany,12
-amaug,18
Amessagunticook,25
Amoskeag,25
Anasqui-,41
Androscoggin,25
Anmesookkantti,25,42
Annis-squam,18
Aquednet, -nesit,23
Ashawi-,33
Ashawog,33
Ashim,34
Ashimuit,34
Assini-,20
-Aûke,6
Baamcheenunganoo,40
Bagadoose,38
-Bik,18
Boonamoo-,27
Capawonk,29
Cappowonganick,29
Catumb,19
Caucomgomoc,17
Chabanakongkomuk,35
Chabenuk,35
Chawonock,7
Chebegnadose,39
Chippaquiddick,23
Cobbosseecontee,26,42
Cobbscook,42
-comaco,21
Connecticut,8
Cuppacommock,21
-Ehtu,-ettu,23,24
Eshqua-,41
-gami,17
Ganshow-hanne,12
Gonic,42
Hackensack,30
-han, -hanne,8,12
Hassuni-,19
Higganum,19
-hittuck,8
Hoccanum,30
Hocquaun,30
Ishquagoma,41
Kabassé-,42
-kamighé,21
-kaoodi,28
-kantti,22
Katahdin,21
Kauposh-,42
Kearsarge,20
Keht-,kit-,12,19,21
Kehtetukqut,12
Kennebec,15
Kenjua,43
Kenosha,43
Ketumpscut,19
-ki,6
Kinougami,17
Kiskatamenakook,7
Kittanning,12
Kittatinny,21
Kitchigami,17
Kitchi-sipi,7
-komuk,21
-kontu,23
Kunckquachu,20
Kuppo-,21,29
Lackawanna,12
Lenapewi-hittuck,8
Machigamig,17
Manati,22
Manhasset,23
Manhatan,22
Manisses,22
Manussing,23
Massa-,Masha-,15
Massachusetts,20
Massapaug,15
Massaugatucket,32
Mashenips,38
Maskinonjé,43
Mattabeset,35
Mattammiscontis,25
Mattapan, -ient,34
Mattapony,35
Mattapoiset,35
Matchebiguatus,39
Mauch-chunk,20
Menan,22
Mennewies,23
Meesucontee,25
Mianus,37
Michigan,17
Missinippi,15
Missisaking,31
Mississippi,7
Misquamacuck,42
Mistassini,20
Miste-shipu,7
Mitchigami,17
Mohicannittuck,8
Montauk,23
Moosup,37
Moshenupsuck,38
-msk(for -ompsk),18
Munhansick,23
Munnoh-han,22
Mushauwomuk,5,35
Mystic,8
Nâīag,29
Namasket,42
Nameaug,38
Namelake,38
Narragansett,29
Nashauekomuk,21
Nashaué,21,33
Nashua, Nashaway,33
Natchaug,33
Naūmkeag,43
Nayatt, Nayot,29
Nessaooa-,22
Newichawanock,12
Nimpanickhickanuh,37
nippe,nebi,14
Nippissing,15
Noank,29
Nóēu-,11
Norwottock,11
Noyaug,29
Nunni-,16
Nunnepoag,16
Nunkertunk,29
Nyack,29
Occoquan,30
Ogkome-,10
Ogquidne,23
Ohio,13
-Ohke, -oke,6
Okhúcquan,30
Olighin-sipoú,13
-ompsk,18
Oswego,31
Ouschankamaug,18
Pacatock,8
Paguan-,40
Pahke-,16,40
Pahquioque,39
Paquabaug,16,40
Paquiaug,39
Pascoag,11
Pasquotank,11
Passamaquoddy,26,43
Patuxet, -ent,9
-paug,15
Pauqui-,39
Pauquepaug,16
Pauat-,9
Pautuck,9
Pawating,9
Pawcatuck,8
Pawtucket,8,9
Pemadené,41
Pemi-,40
Pemaquid,41
Pemetiq,41
Pemigewasset,41
Pemiji-,40
Pemijigomé,40
Pen-,19
Penobscot,19
Pequabuck,16
Pequannoc,40
Pescatum-,26,43
Peske-,10
Pesquamscot,11
Pettiquamscut,18
Petuckquapock,16
Petukqui-,16,18
Pikanghenahik,30
Pimé-,40
-pisk, -psk,18
Piscataqua, -quog,11
Piscataway,-aquis,11
Poaetquessing,9
Pohqui-,39
Ponamo-,27
Poquannoc,40