The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 9

of Catholic Missions, 142, 145.]
9. 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.
Campanius mentions one 'Manathaan,' Coopers' Island (now Cherry Island) near Fort
Christina, in the Delaware,[43] and "Manataanung or Manaates, a place settled by the
Dutch, who built there a clever little town, which went on increasing every day,"--now
called New York. (The termination in -ung is the locative affix.) New York Island was
sometimes spoken of as 'the island'--'Manaté,' 'Manhatte;' sometimes as 'an
island'--Manathan, Menatan, 'Manhatan;' more accurately, as 'the small
island'--Manhaates, Manattes, and 'the Manados' of the Dutch. The Island Indians
collectively, were called Manhattans; those of the small island, 'Manhatesen.' "They
deeply mistake," as Gov. Stuyvesant's agents declared, in 1659,[44] "who interpret the
general name of Manhattans, unto the particular town built upon a little Island; because it
signified the whole country and province."
[Footnote 43: Description of New Sweden, b. ii. c. 8. (Duponceau's translation.)]
[Footnote 44: N.Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, iii. 375.]
Manisses or Monasses, as Block Island was called, is another form of the
diminutive,--from munnoh; and Manhasset, otherwise written, Munhansick, a name of
Shelter Island, is the same diminutive with the locative affix, munna-es-et. So is
'Manusses' or 'Mennewies,' an island near Rye, N.Y.,--now written (with the southern
form of the locative,) Manussing.
Montauk Point, formerly Montauket, Montacut, and by Roger Williams, Munnawtawkit,
is probably from manati, auke, and -it locative; 'in the Island country,' or 'country of the
Islanders.'
The other name of 'Island,' in Algonkin languages, is AHQUEDNE or OCQUIDNE; with
the locative; ahquednet, as in Acts xxvii. 16. (Compare, Cree, ákootin, "it suspends, is
sit-uate, e.g. an island in the water," from âkoo, a verbal root "expressive of a state of
rest." Howse's Grammar, p. 152. Micmac, agwitk, "it is in the water;" whence, Ep-agwit,

"it lies [sits?] in the water,"[45] the Indian name of Prince Edward's Island.) This appears
to have been restricted in its application, to islands lying near the main land or spoken of
with reference to the main land. Roger Williams learned from the Narragansetts to call
Rhode Island, Aquiday, Aquednet, &c., 'the Island' or 'at the Island,' and a "little island in
the mouth of the Bay," was Aquedenesick,[46] or Aquidneset, i.e. 'at the small island.'
[Footnote 45: Dawson's Acadian Geology, App. p. 673.]
[Footnote 46: 4th Mass. Hist. Collections, vi. 267.]
Chippaquiddick, the modern name of an island divided by a narrow strait from Martha's
Vineyard, is from cheppi-aquidne, 'separated island.'
Abnaki names ending in -ka[n]tti, or -kontee (Mass. -kontu; Etchemin or Maliseet,
-kodiah, -quoddy; Micmac, -ka[n]di, or -aikadee;) may be placed with those of the first
class, though this termination, representing a substantival component, is really only the
locative affix of nouns in the indefinite plural. Exact location was denoted by affixing, to
inanimate nouns-singular, -et, -it or -ut; proximity, or something less than exact location,
by -set, (interposing s, the characteristic of diminutives and derogatives) between the
noun and affix. Plural nouns, representing a _definite number of individuals, or a number
which might be regarded as_ definite, received -ettu, -ittu, or -uttu, in the locative: but if
the number was indefinite, or many individuals were spoken of collectively, the affix was
-kontu, denoting 'where many are,' or 'place of abundance.' For example, wadchu,
mountain; wadchu-ut, to, on, or at the mountain; wadchu-set, near the mountain;
wadchuuttu (or -ehtu), in or among certain mountains, known or indicated (as in Eliot's
version of Numbers xxxiii. 47, 48); wadchué-kontu, among mountains, where there are a
great many mountains, for 'in the hill country,' Joshua xiii. 6. So, nippe-kontu, 'in the
waters,' i.e. in many waters, or 'where there is much water,' Deut. iv. 18; v. 8. In
Deuteronomy xi. 11, the conversion to a verb of a noun which had previously received
this affix, shows that the idea of abundance
or of multitude is associated with it: "ohke
wadchuuhkontu[oo]," i.e. wadechué-kontu-[oo], "the land is a land of hills," that is,
where are many hills, or where hills are plenty.
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 -[)i]ka for the indicative present: in the Cree, by
adding -skow or -ooskow. In