The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 2

the place, or the
animals which resorted to it; occasionally, its position or direction from a place
previously known, or from the territory of the nation by which the name was given,--as
for example, 'the land on the other side of the river,' 'behind the mountain,' 'the east land,'
'the half-way place,' &c. The same name might be, in fact it very often was, given to
more places than one; but these must not be so near together that mistakes or doubts
could be occasioned by the repetition. With this precaution, there was no reason why
there might not be as many 'Great Rivers,' 'Bends,' 'Forks,' and 'Water-fall places' as there
are Washingtons, Franklins, Unions, and Fairplays in the list of American post-offices.
With few exceptions, the structure of these names is simple. Nearly all may be referred to
one of three classes:
I. Those formed by the union of two elements, which we will call adjectival and
substantival;[3] with or without a locative suffix or post-position meaning 'at,' 'in,' 'by,'
'near,' &c.
[Footnote 3: These terms, though not strictly appropriate to Indian synthesis, are
sufficiently explicit for the purposes of this paper. They are borrowed from the author of
"Words and Places" (the Rev. Isaac Taylor), who has employed them (2d ed., p. 460) as
equivalents of Förstemann's "Bestimmungswort" and "Grundwort," (_Die deutschen
Ortsnamen._ Nordhausen, 1863, pp. 26-107, 109-174). In Indian names, the
"Bestimmungswort" sometimes corresponds to the English adjective--sometimes to a
noun substantive--but is more generally an adverb.]
II. Those which have a single element, the substantival or 'ground-word,' with its locative
suffix.

III. Those formed from verbs, as participials or verbal nouns, denoting a place where the
action of the verb is performed. To this class belong, for example, such names as
Mushauwomuk (Boston), 'where there is going-by-boat,' i.e., a ferry, or canoe-crossing.
Most of these names, however, may be shown by rigid analysis to belong to one of the
two preceding classes, which comprise at least nine-tenths of all Algonkin local names
which have been preserved.
The examples I shall give of these three classes, will be taken from Algonkin languages;
chiefly from the Massachusetts 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]
[Footnote 4: It has not been thought advisable to attempt the reduction of words or names
taken from different languages to a uniform orthography. When no authorities are named,
it may be understood that the Massachusetts words are taken from Eliot's translation of
the Bible, or from his Indian Grammar; the Narragansett, from Roger Williams's Indian
Key, and his published letters; the Abnaki, from the Dictionary of Râle (Rasles), edited
by Dr. Pickering; the Delaware, from Zeisberger's Vocabulary and his Grammar; the
Chippewa, from Schoolcraft (Sch.), Baraga's Dictionary and Grammar (B.), and the
Spelling Books published by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions;
and the Cree, from Howse's Grammar of that language.
The character [oo] (oo in 'food;' w in 'Wabash,' 'Wisconsin'), used by Eliot, has been
substituted in Abnaki words for the Greek [Greek: ou ligature] of Râle and the Jesuit
missionaries, and for the [Greek: omega] of Campanius. A small [n] placed above the line,
shows that the vowel which it follows is nasal,--and replaces the ñ employed for the same
purpose by Râle, and the short line or dash placed under a vowel, in Pickering's alphabet.
In Eliot's notation, oh usually represents the sound of o in order and in form,--that of
broad a; but sometimes it stands for short o, as in not.]
* * * * *
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
.
1. The Massachusetts OHKE (Narr. aûke; Delaware, hacki; Chip. ahke; Abnaki, 'ki;)
signifies LAND, and in local names, PLACE or COUNTRY. The final vowel is
sometimes lost in composition. With the locative suffix, it becomes ohkit (Del. hacking;
Chip. ahki[n]; Abn. kik;) at or in a place or country.
To the Narragansetts proper, the country east of Narragansett Bay and Providence River
was wa[n]pan-auke, 'east land;' and its people were called by the Dutch explorers,
Wapenokis, and by the English, Wampanoags. The tribes of the upper St. Lawrence
taught the French, and tribes south of the Piscataqua taught the English, to give the name
of East-landers--Abenaquis, or Abinakis--to the Indians of Maine. The country of the

Delawares was 'east land,' Wapanachki, to Algonkin nations of the west.
The 'Chawwonock,' or 'Chawonocke,' of Capt. John Smith,--on what is now known as
Chowan River, in Virginia and North Carolina,--was, to the