J. Hammond Trumbull

“ 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. ”

“ 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 often extra-limitary to 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. ”

“ 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 is not the right one.
5. The components of every place-name—or to speak more generally, the elements of every Indian synthesis are [Pg 47] significant roots, not mere fractions of words arbitrarily selected for new combinations. ”

“ In our own language, such forms may hold their places by prescriptive right or force of custom, and names absolutely unmeaning, or applied without regard to their original meaning, are accepted by common consent as the distinguishing marks of persons and places. We call a man William or Charles, Jones or Brown,—or a town, New Lebanon, Cincinnati, Baton Rouge, or Big Bethel—just as we put a number on a policeman's badge or on a post-office box, or a trademark on an article of merchandise ”

“ 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 ́,) as the fish, par excellence. ”

“ Again—every Indian name is complete 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 difference [Pg 49] must not be lost sight of, in analysis or translation. ”

“ 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. [Pg 44] 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. ”

“ 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 grammatical [Pg 37] synthesis was exact. Every consonant and every vowel had its office and its place. Not one could be dropped or transposed, nor could one be added, without change 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. ”

“ In one form, we have wulik-hannésipu, 'best rapid-stream long-river;' in the other, wuliké-sipu, 'best long-river.' Heckewelder's derivation of the name, on the authority of a Delaware legend, from the mythic 'Alligewi' or 'Talligewi,'—"a race of Indians said to have once inhabited that country," who, after great battles fought in pre-historic times, were driven from it by the all-conquering Delawares, [23] —is of no value, unless supported by other testimony. ”

“ Attuk, in Massachusetts was the common fallow-deer,—in Canada and the north-west the caribou or reindeer. The Abnaki Indian called his dog (atié) by a name which the Chippewa gives his horse (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. ”

“ 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 a sloping mountain-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 Abnaki peme'teki, 'sloping land.' Pemaquid appears 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nâïag, 'a corner, angle, or point.' This is a verbal, formed from nâ-i, 'it is angular,' 'it corners.' Eliot wrote "yaue naiyag wetu" for the "four corners of a house," Job i. 19. Sometimes, nâi receives, instead of the formative -ag, the locative affix (nâï-it or nâï-ut) ; sometimes it is used as an adjectival prefixed to auke, 'land.' One or another of these forms serves as the name of a great number of river and sea-coast 'points.' In Connecticut, we find a 'Nayaug' at the southern extremity of Mason's Island in Mystic Bay, and 'Noank' (formerly written, Naweag, Naiwayonk, Noïank, &c.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ Qussuk, another word for 'rock' or 'stone,' used by Eliot and Roger Williams, is not often—perhaps never found in local names. Hassun or Assun (Chip. assin ́; Del. achsin;) [Pg 20] appears in New England names only as an adjectival (assuné, assini, 'stony') , but farther north, it occasionally occurs as the substantival component of such names as Mistassinni, 'the Great Stone,' which gives its name to a lake in British America, to a tribe of Indians, and to a river that flows into St. John's Lake. [37]
7. ”

“ The Indian name of the Alleghanies has been said,—I do not now remember on whose authority,—to mean 'Endless Mountains.' 'Endless' cannot be more exactly expressed in any Algonkin language than by 'very long' or 'longest,'—in the Delaware, Eluwi-guneu. ”

“ 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 of Moshenupsuck, 'great-pond brook' or (literally) 'great-pond outlet,' at the south end of Moshenups or Mashenips '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 to May-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. ”

“ A contraction of the plural form of a Massachusetts noun-generic,—asquash, denoting 'things which are eaten green, or without cooking,' was adopted as the name of a garden vegetable,—with conscious reference, perhaps, to the old English word squash, meaning 'something soft or immature.' Sometimes etymology overreaches itself, by regarding an aboriginal name as the corrupt form of a foreign one. ”

“ Father Dablon, in the next year's Relation, calls this lake 'Mitchiganons.' Perhaps there was some confusion between the names of the 'weir' and the 'great lake,' and 'Michigan' appears to have been adopted as a kind of compromise between the two. If so, this modern form of the name is corrupt in more senses than one. [30]
[Pg 18]
5. -amaug, denoting 'a fishing place' (Abn. anmangan, 'on pêche là,') is derived from the root âm or âma, signifying 'to take by the mouth;' whence, âm-aü, 'he fishes with hook and line,' and Del. âman, a fish-hook. ”

“ River, Minnesota, is the 'end lake,' the extreme point to which canoes go up that stream.
Names of fishes supply 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; -tuk or sipu, 'river;' ohke, 'place;' Abn. ”

“ The examples I shall give of these three classes, will be taken from Algonkin languages; chiefly from the Massachu [Pg 6] setts or Natick (which was substantially the same as that spoken by the Narragansetts and Connecticut Indians) , the Abnaki, the Lenni-Lenâpe or Delaware, the Chippewa or Ojibway, and the Knisteno or Cree. [4]
Of names of the first class, in central and southern New England, some of the more common substantival components or 'ground-words' are those which denote Land or Country, River, Water, Lake or Pond, Fishing-place, Rock, Mountain, Inclosure, and Island. ”

“ Of two words meaning Island, munnohan or, rejecting the formative, munnoh (Abn. menahan; Del. menatey; Chip. minís, a diminutive,) is the more common, but is rarely, if ever, found in composition. The 'Grand Menan,' opposite Passammaquoddy Bay, retains the Abnaki name. Long Island was Menatey or Manati, 'the Island,'—to the Delawares, Minsi and other neighboring tribes. Any smaller island was menatan (Mass. munnohhan) , the indefinite form, or menates (Mass. munnises, manisses) , the diminutive. ”

“ This form of verb was rarely used by Eliot and is not alluded to in his Grammar. It appears to have been less common in the Massachusetts than in most of the other Algonkin languages. In the Chippewa, an 'abundance verb,' as Baraga [47] calls it, may be formed from any noun, by adding -ka or -ĭka for the indicative present: in the Cree, by adding -skow or -ooskow. In the Abnaki, -ka or -k [oo] , or -ik [oo] , forms similar verbs, and verbals. The final 'tti of kantti, represents the impersonal a'tté, eto, 'there belongs to it,' 'there is there,' il y a. ”

“ Wonkun, 'bended,' 'a bend,' was sometimes used without affix. The Abnaki equivalent is [oo] anghíghen, 'courbe,' 'croché' (Râle) . There was a Wongun, on the Connecticut, between Glastenbury and Wethersfield, and another, more considerable, a few miles below, in Middletown. Wonki is found in compound names, as an adjectival; as in Wonki-tuk, 'bent river,' on the Quinebaug, between Plainfield and Canterbury,—written by early recorders, 'Wongattuck,' 'Wanungatuck,' &c., and at last transferred from its proper place to a hill and brook west of the river, where it is disguised as Nunkertunk. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Pequot and Narragansett interpreters, in 1679, declared that Blackstone's River, was "called in Indian Pautuck (which signifies, a Fall) , because there the fresh water falls into the salt water." [9] So, the upper falls of the Quinebaug river (at Danielsonville, Conn.) were called "Powntuck, which is a general name for all Falls," as Indians of that region testified. [10] There was another Pautucket, 'at the falls' of the Merrimac (now Lowell) ; and another on Westfield River, Mass. Pawtuxet, i.e. pau't-tuk-es-it, is the regularly formed diminutive of paut-tuk-it. ”

“ Moosup river, which flows westerly through Plainfield into the Quinebaug and which has given names to a post-office and factory village, was formerly Moosup's river,—Moosup or Maussup being one of the aliases of a Narragansett sachem who is better known, in the history of Philip's war, as Pessacus. Heckewelder [79] restores 'Pyma [Pg 38] tuning,' 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. ”

“ Mauch Chunk (Penn.) is from Del. machk, 'bear' and wachtschunk, 'at, or on, the mountain,'—according to Heckewelder, who writes 'Machkschúnk,' or the Delaware name of 'the bear's mountain.' [Pg 21]
In the Abnaki and some other Algonkin dialects, the substantival component of mountain names is -ádené,—an inseparable noun-generic. Katahdin (pronounced Ktaadn by the Indians of Maine) , Abn. Ket-ádené, 'the greatest (or chief) mountain,' is the equivalent of 'Kittatinny,' the name of a ridge of the Alleghanies, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. ”