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قراءة كتاب The Composition of Indian Geographical Names Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages

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The Composition of Indian Geographical Names
Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages

The Composition of Indian Geographical Names Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 5

pond.'

Wongun-paug, 'crooked (or bent) pond.' There is one of the name in Coventry, Conn. Written, 'Wangunbog,' 'Wungumbaug,' &c.

Petuhkqui-paug, 'round pond,' now called 'Dumpling Pond,' in Greenwich, Conn., gave a name to a plain and brook in that town, and, occasionally, to the plantation settled there, sometimes written 'Petuckquapock.'

Nunni-paug, 'fresh pond.' One in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, gave a name (Nunnepoag) to an Indian village near it. Eliot wrote nunnipog, for 'fresh water,' in James iii. 12.

Sonki-paug or sonki-paug, 'cool pond.' (Sonkipog, 'cold water,' Eliot.) Egunk-sonkipaug, or 'the cool pond (spring) of Egunk' hill in Sterling, Conn., is named in Chandler's Survey of the Mohegan country, as one of the east bounds.

Pahke-paug, 'clear pond' or 'pure water pond.' This name occurs in various forms, as 'Pahcupog,' a pond near Westerly, R.I.;[28] 'Pauquepaug,' transferred from a pond to a brook in Kent and New Milford; 'Paquabaug,' near Shepaug River, in Roxbury, &c. 'Pequabuck' river, in Bristol and Farmington, appears to derive its name from some 'clear pond,'—perhaps the one between Bristol and Plymouth.

Another noun-generic that denotes 'lake' or 'fresh water at rest,' is found in many Abnaki, northern Algonkin and Chippewa names, but not, perhaps, in Massachusetts or Connecticut. This is the Algonkin -gămi, -gŏmi, or -gummee. Kitchi-gami or 'Kechegummee,' the Chippewa name of Lake Superior, is 'the greatest, or chief lake.' Caucomgomoc, in Maine, is the Abn. kaäkou-gami-k, 'at Big-Gull lake.' Temi-gami, 'deep lake,' discharges its waters into Ottawa River, in Canada; Kinou-gami, now Kenocami, 'long lake,' into the Saguenay, at Chicoutimi.

There is a Mitchi-gami or (as sometimes written) machi-gummi, 'large lake,' in northern Wisconsin, and the river which flows from it has received the same name, with the locative suffix, 'Machigāmig' (for mitchi-gaming). A branch of this river is now called 'Fence River' from a mitchihikan or mitchikan, a 'wooden fence' constructed near its banks, by the Indians, for catching deer.[29] Father Allouez describes, in the 'Relation' for 1670 (p. 96), a sort of 'fence' or weir which the Indians had built across Fox River, for taking sturgeon &c., and which they called 'Mitihikan;' and shortly after, he mentions the destruction, by the Iroquois, of a village of Outagamis (Fox Indians) near his mission station, called Machihigan-ing, ['at the mitchihikan, or weir?'] on the 'Lake of the Illinois,' now Michigan. 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]

 

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. Wonkemaug for wongun-amaug, 'crooked fishing-place,' between Warren and New Preston, in Litchfield county, is now 'Raumaug Lake.' Ouschank-amaug, in East Windsor, was perhaps the 'eel fishing-place.' The lake in Worcester, Quansigamaug, Quansigamug, &c., and now Quinsigamond, was 'the pickerel fishing-place,' qunnosuog-amaug.

 

6. Rock. In composition, -pisk or -psk (Abn. pesk[oo]; Cree, -pisk; Chip. -bik;) denotes hard or flint-like rock;[31] -ompsk or onbsk, and, by phonetic corruption, -msk, (from ompaé, 'upright,' and -pisk,) a 'standing rock.' As a substantival component of local names, -ompsk and, with the locative affix, -ompskut, are found in such names as—

Petukqui-ompskut, corrupted to Pettiquamscut, 'at the round rock.' Such a rock, on the east side of Narrow River, north-east from Tower Hill Church in South Kingston, R.I., was one of the bound marks of, and gave a name to, the "Pettiquamscut purchase" in the Narragansett country.

Wanashqui-ompskut (wanashquompsqut, Ezekiel xxvi. 14), 'at the top of the rock,' or at 'the point of rock.' Wonnesquam, Annis Squam, and Squam, near Cape Ann, are perhaps corrupt forms of the name of some 'rock summit' or 'point of rock' thereabouts. Winnesquamsaukit (for wanashqui-ompsk-ohk-it?) near Exeter Falls, N.H., has been transformed to Swampscoate and Squamscot. The name of Swamscot or Swampscot, formerly part of Lynn, Mass., has a different meaning. It is from m'squi-ompsk, 'Red Rock' (the modern name), near the north end of Long Beach, which was perhaps "The clifte" mentioned as one of the bounds of Mr. Humfrey's Swampscot farm, laid out in 1638.[32] M'squompskut means 'at the red rock.' The sound of the initial m was easily lost to English ears.[33]

Penobscot, a corruption of the Abnaki panna[oo]anbskek, was originally the name of a locality on the river so called by the English. Mr. Moses Greenleaf, in a letter to Dr. Morse in 1823, wrote 'Pe noom´ ske ook' as the Indian name of Old Town Falls, "whence the English name of the River, which would have been better, Penobscook." He gave, as the meaning of this name, "Rocky Falls." The St. Francis Indians told Thoreau, that it means "Rocky River."[34] 'At the fall of the rock' or 'at the descending rock' is a more nearly exact translation. The first syllable, pen- (Abn. panna) represents a root meaning 'to fall from a height,'—as in pann-tek[oo], 'fall of a river' or 'rapids;' penan-ki, 'fall of land,' the descent or downward slope of a mountain, &c.

Keht-ompskqut, or 'Ketumpscut' as it was formerly written,

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