The Composition of Indian Geographical Names - Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages by J. Hammond (James Hammond) Trumbull
page 7 of 83 (08%)
page 7 of 83 (08%)
|
is now known as Chowan River, in Virginia and North Carolina,--was, to
the Powhattans and other Virginian tribes, the 'south country,' or _sowan-ohke_, as Eliot wrote it, in Gen. xxiv. 62. With the adjectival _sucki_, 'dark-colored,' 'blackish,' we have the aboriginal name of the South Meadow in Hartford,--_sucki-ohke_, (written _Sicaiook_, _Suckiaug_, &c.), 'black earth.' _Wuskowhanan-auk-it_, 'at the pigeon country,' was the name (as given by Roger Williams) of a "place where these fowl breed abundantly,"--in the northern part of the Nipmuck country (now in Worcester county, Mass.). '_Kiskatamenakook_,' the name of a brook (but originally, of some locality near the brook) in Catskill, N.Y.,[5] is _kiskato-minak-auke_, 'place of thin-shelled nuts' (or shag-bark hickory nuts). [Footnote 5: Doc. Hist. of New York (4to), vol. iii. p. 656.] 2. RIVER. _Seip_ or _sepu_ (Del. _sipo_; Chip. _s[=e]p[=e]_; Abn. _sip[oo]_;) the Algonkin word for 'river' is derived from a root that means 'stretched out,' 'extended,' 'become long,' and corresponds nearly to the English 'stream.' This word rarely, if ever, enters into the composition of local names, and, so far as I know, it does not make a part of the name of any river in New England. _Mississippi_ is _missi-sipu_, 'great river;' _Kitchi-sipi_, 'chief river' or 'greatest river,' was the Montagnais name of the St. Lawrence;[6] and _Miste-shipu_ is their modern name for the Moise or 'Great River' |
|