Aug. 31st, 2006 03:16 pm
Rivers run through it
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muckefuckMany years ago now, I spent a chunk of my free time helping the friendly Basque organiser of the GeoNative web site research some of the more obscure minority languages of the world. In particular, I scoured the Amerind dictionaries of the Reg ferretting out native names of American geographical features. I was happy to do it, though I didn't foresee that my credit would mean several years of complete strangers contacting me for help with languages I knew next to nothing about.
It's nice to see he still has the site going, even if some features (like the clunky ASCII-based respellings) haven't aged so well. In fact, I'd like to update it with some Osage names, though I'd first like see Quintero's dictionary so I can get the spellings right. (I have to say, LaFlesche's orthography really drives me batty. The whole practice of separating each syllable with hyphens, e.g. I'n-ba-pa-we-tsi'n for a name Quintero would write ?įįpahpawachį, simply smacks so heavily of cheesy summer camps and aging tourist traps that it gives me hives.)
So far, I've had particular success in identifying river names. Perhaps because the Osage are relatively latecomers to the area (they may have migrated from the Ohio Valley as late as the 16th century), these tend to be simple and transparent. So far I have:
Níišoce ["water-smoky"] the Missouri River (probably a reference to its siltiness; LaFlesche adds that the name of Kansas City is Níišoce htãwã "Missouri Town")
Níihtãhka ["water-big"] the Mississippi River
Níižuuce ["water-red"] the Red River or Arkansas River
Níižuucehtãka ["water-red-big"] the Arkansas River
Níižuucehžĩka ["water-red-little"] the Little Arkansas River
Níibraska ["water-flat"] the Platte River (points for recognising that the French name is a translation of the Siouan; you can imagine how I squealed when I recognised this as the origin of the name of Nebraska)
?Níiožo the Neosho River ("water-clear" according to Wikipedia, but I've been unable to confirm the second element; LaFlesche spells it u-zhu and glosses it "main, principal")
Níiska ["water-white"] the Little Osage River (Quintero points out that ska is also used for "clear" when speaking of water, speech, etc.)
It's nice to see he still has the site going, even if some features (like the clunky ASCII-based respellings) haven't aged so well. In fact, I'd like to update it with some Osage names, though I'd first like see Quintero's dictionary so I can get the spellings right. (I have to say, LaFlesche's orthography really drives me batty. The whole practice of separating each syllable with hyphens, e.g. I'n-ba-pa-we-tsi'n for a name Quintero would write ?įįpahpawachį, simply smacks so heavily of cheesy summer camps and aging tourist traps that it gives me hives.)
So far, I've had particular success in identifying river names. Perhaps because the Osage are relatively latecomers to the area (they may have migrated from the Ohio Valley as late as the 16th century), these tend to be simple and transparent. So far I have:
Níišoce ["water-smoky"] the Missouri River (probably a reference to its siltiness; LaFlesche adds that the name of Kansas City is Níišoce htãwã "Missouri Town")
Níihtãhka ["water-big"] the Mississippi River
Níižuuce ["water-red"] the Red River or Arkansas River
Níižuucehtãka ["water-red-big"] the Arkansas River
Níižuucehžĩka ["water-red-little"] the Little Arkansas River
Níibraska ["water-flat"] the Platte River (points for recognising that the French name is a translation of the Siouan; you can imagine how I squealed when I recognised this as the origin of the name of Nebraska)
?Níiožo the Neosho River ("water-clear" according to Wikipedia, but I've been unable to confirm the second element; LaFlesche spells it u-zhu and glosses it "main, principal")
Níiska ["water-white"] the Little Osage River (Quintero points out that ska is also used for "clear" when speaking of water, speech, etc.)