NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
1906.
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{INDEX p. 237}
Primary Explanations.
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The locatives of the Indian geographical names which have been handed
down as the names of boundmarks or of places or tribes, are properly a
subject of study on the part of all who would be familiar with the
aboriginal geography of a district or a state. In many cases these names
were quite as designative of geographical centers as are the names of
the towns, villages and cities which have been substituted for them. In
some cases they have been wisely retained, while the specific places to
which they belonged have been lost. In this work special effort has been
made, first, to ascertain the places to which the names belonged as
given in official records, to ascertain the physical features of those
places, and carry back the thought to the poetic period of our
territorial history, "when the original drapery in which nature was
enveloped under the dominion of the laws of vegetation, spread out in
one vast, continuous interminable forest," broken here and there by the
opened patches of corn-lands and the wigwams and villages of the
redmen; secondly, to ascertain the meanings of the aboriginal names,
recognizing fully that, as Dr. Trumbull wrote, "They were not proper
names or mere unmeaning marks, but significant appellatives conveying a
description of the locatives to which they were given." Coming down to
us in the crude orthographies of traders and unlettered men, they are
not readily recognized in the orthographies of the educated missionaries,
and especially are they disguised by the varying powers of the German,
the French, and the English alphabets in which they were written by
educated as well as by uneducated scribes, and by traders who were
certainly not very familiar with the science of representing spoken
sounds by letters. In one instance the same name appears in forty-nine
forms by different writers. Many names, however, have been recognized
under missionary standards and their meanings satisfactorily ascertained,
aided by the features of the localities to which they were applied; the
latter, indeed, contributing very largely to their interpretation.
Probably the reader will find geographical descriptions that do not
apply to the places where the name is now met. The early settlers made
many transfers as well as extensions of names from a specific place to
a large district of country. It must be remembered that original
applications were specific to the places which they described even
though they were generic and applicable to any place where the same
features were referred to. The locatives in Indian deeds and original
patents are the only guide to places of original application, coupled
with descriptive features where they are known.
No vocabularies of the dialects spoken in the lower valley of the Hudson
having been preserved, the vocabularies of the Upper-Unami and the
Minsi-Lenape, or Delaware tongues on the south and west, and the Natick,
or Massachusetts, on the north and east, have been consulted for
explanations by comparative inductive methods, and also orthographies
in other places, the interpretations of which have been established by
competent linguists. In all cases where the meaning of terms has been
particularly questioned, the best expert authority has been consulted.
While positive accuracy is not asserted in any case, it is believed that
in most cases the interpretations which have been given may be accepted
as substantially correct. There is no poetry in them--no "glittering
waterfalls," no "beautiful rivers," no "smile of the Great Spirit," no
"Holy place of sacred feasts and dances," but plain terms that have
their equivalents in our own language for a small hill, a high hill, a
mountain, a brook, a creek, a kill, a river, a pond, a lake, a swamp,
a large stone, a place of small stones, a split rock, a meadow, or
whatever the objective feature may have been as recognized by the
Indian. Many of them were particular names in the form of verbals
indicating a place where the action of the verb was performed;
occasionally the name of a sachem is given as that of his place of
residence or the stream on which he resided, but all are from generic
roots.
To the Algonquian dialects spoken in the valley of Hudson's River at the
time of the discovery, was added later the Mohawk--Iroquorian, to some
extent, more particularly on the north, where it appears about 1621-6,
as indicated in the blanket deed given by the Five Nations to King
George in 1726. Territorially, in the primary era of European invasion,
the Eastern Algonquian prevailed, in varying idioms, on both sides of
the river, from a northern point to the Katskills, and from thence south
to the Highlands a type of the Unami-Minsi-Lenape or Delaware. That
spoken around New York on both sides of the river, was classed by the
early Dutch writers as Manhattan, as distinguished from dialects in the
Highlands and from the Savano or dialects of the East New England coast.
North of the Highlands on both sides of the river, they classed the
dialect as Wapping, and from the Katskills north as Mahican or Mohegan,
preserved in part in what is known as the Stockbridge. Presumably the
dialects were more or less mixed and formed as a whole what may be
termed "The Hudson's River Dialect," radically Lenape or Delaware, as
noted by Governor Tryon in 1774. In local names we seem to meet the
Upper-Unami and the Minsi of New Jersey, and the Mohegan and the Natick
of the north and east, the Quiripi of the Sound, and the dialect of the
Connecticut Valley. In the belt of country south of the Katskills they
were soft and vocalic, the lingual mute _t_ frequently appearing and
_r_ taking the place of the Eastern _l_ and _n._ In the Minsi (Del.)
Zeisberger wrote _l_ invariably, as distinguished from _r,_ which
appears in the earliest local names in the valley of the Hudson. Other
dialectic peculiarities seem to appear in the exchange of the sonant
_g_ for the hard sound of the surd mute _k,_ and of _p_ for _g,_ _s_
for _g,_ and _t_ for _d,_ _st_ for _gk,_ etc. Initials are badly mixed,
presumably due in part at least, to the habit of Indian speakers in
throwing the sound of the word forward to the penult; in some cases to
the lack of an "Indian ear" on the part of the hearer.
In structure all Algonquian dialects are Polysynthetic, _i. e.,_ words
composed wholly or in part of other words or generic roots. Pronunciations
and inflections differ as do the words in meaning in many cases. In all
dialects the most simple combinations appear in geographical names,
which the late Dr. J. H. Trumbull resolved into three classes, viz.:
"I. Those formed by the union of two elements, which we will call
_adjectival_ and _substantival,_ or ground-word, with or without a
locative suffix, or post-position word meaning 'at,' 'in,' 'on,' 'near,'
etc. [I use the terms 'adjectival' and 'substantival,' because no true
adjectives or substantives enter into the composition of Algonquian
names. The adjectival may be an adverb or a preposition; the
substantival element is often a verbal, which serves in composition as
a generic name, but which cannot be used as an independent word--the
synthesis always retains the verbal form.] II. Those which have a single
element, the _substantival,_ or ground-word, with locative suffix.
III. Those formed from verbs as participials or verbal nouns, denoting
a place where the action of the verb is performed. Most of these latter,
however," he adds, "may be shown by strict analysis to belong to one of
the two preceding classes, which comprise at least nine-tenths of all
Algonquian local names which have been preserved." For example, in Class
I, _Wapan-aki_ is a combination of _Wapan,_ "the Orient," "the East,"
and _aki,_ "Land, place or country," _unlimited;_ with locative suffix
(_-ng,_ Del., _-it,_ Mass.), "In the East Land or Country." _Kit-ann-ing,_
Del., is a composition from _Kitschi,_ "Chief, principal, greatest,"
_hanné,_ "river," and _ing_ locative, and reads, "A place at or on the
largest river." The suffix _-aki, -acki, -hacki,_ Del., meaning "Land,
place, or country, _unlimited,_" in Eastern orthographies _-ohke, -auke,
-ague, -ke, -ki,_ etc., is changed to _-kamik,_ or _-kamike,_ Del.,
_-kamuk_ or _-komuk,_ Mass., in describing "Land or place _limited,_" or
enclosed, a particular place, as a field, garden, and also used for
house, thicket, etc. The Eastern post-position locatives are _-it, -et,
-at, -ut;_ the Delaware, _-ng, -nk,_ with connecting vowel _-ing, -ink,
-ong, -onk, -ung, -unk,_ etc. The meaning of this class of suffixes is
the same; they locate a place or object that is at, in, or on some other
place or object, the name of Which is prefixed, as in Delaware _Hitgunk,_
"On or to a tree;" _Utenink,_ "In the town;" _Wachtschunk,_ "On the
mountain." In some cases the locative takes the verbal form indicating
place or country, Williams wrote "_Sachimauónck,_ a Kingdom or Monarchy."
Dr. Schoolcraft wrote: "From _Ojibwai_ (Chippeway) is formed
_Ojib-wain-ong,_ 'Place of the Chippeways;' _Monominikaun-ing,_ 'In the
place of wild rice,'" Dr. Brinton wrote "_Walum-ink,_ 'The place of
paint.'" The letter _s,_ preceding the locative, changes the meaning of
the latter to near, or something less than at or on. The suffixes _-is,
-it, -os, -es_ mean "Small," as in _Ménates_ or _Ménatit,_ "Small
island." The locative affix cannot be applied to an animal in the sense
of at, in, on, to. There are many formative inflections and suffixes
indicating the plural, etc.
Mohawk or Iroquoian names, while polysynthetic, differ from Algonquian
in construction. "The adjective," wrote Horatio Hale, "when employed
in an isolated form, follows the substantive, as _Kanonsa,_ 'house;'
_Kanonsa-kowa,_ 'large house;' but in general the substantive and
adjective coalesce." In some cases the adjective is split in two, and
the substantive inserted, as in _Tiogen,_ a composition of _Te,_ "two,"
and _ogen,_ "to separate," which is split and the word _ononté,_
"mountain," or hill, inserted, forming _Te-ononté-ogen,_ "Between two
mountains," "The local relations of nouns are expressed by affixed
particles, such as _ke, ne, kon, akon, akta._ Thus from _Onónta,_
mountain, we have _Onóntáke,_ at (or to) the mountain; from _Akéhrat_
dish, _Akehrátne,_ in or on the dish," etc. From the variety of its
forms and combinations it is a more difficult language than the
Algonquian. No European has fully mastered it.
No attempt has been made to correct record orthographies further than
to give their probable missionary equivalents where they can be
recognized. In many cases crude orthographies have converted them into
unknown tongues. Imperfect as many of them are and without standing in
aboriginal glossaries, they have become place names that may not be
disturbed. No two of the early scribes expressed the sound of the same
name in precisely the same letters, and even the missionaries who gave
attention to the study of the aboriginal tongues, did not always write
twice alike. Original sounds cannot now be restored. The diacritical
marks employed by Williams and Eliot in the English alphabet, and by
Zeisberger and Heckewelder in the German alphabet, are helpful in
pronunciations, but as a rule the corrupt local record orthographies
are a law unto themselves. In quoting diacritical marks the forms of the
learned linguists who gave their idea of how the word was pronounced,
have been followed. It is not, however, in the power of diacritical
marks or of any European alphabet to express correctly the sound of an
Algonquian or of an Iroquoian word as it was originally spoken, or write
it in European characters. Practically, every essential element in
pronunciation is secured by separating the forms into words or parts of
words, or particles, of which it is composed, (where the original
elements of the composition cannot be detected) by syllabalizing on the
vowel sounds. An anglicized vocalism of any name may be readily
established and an original name formed in American nomenclature, as
many names in current use amply illustrates. Few would suspect that
_Ochsechraga_ (Mohawk) was the original of Saratoga, or that _P'tuk-sepo_
(Lenape) was the original of Tuxedo.
A considerable number of record names have been included that are not
living. They serve to illustrate the dialect spoken in the valley as
handed down by European scribes of different languages, as well as the
local geography of the Indians. The earlier forms are mainly Dutch
notations. A few Dutch names that are regarded by some as Indian, have
been noticed, and also some Indian names on the Delaware River which,
from the associations of that river with the history of the State, as
in part one of its boundary streams, as well as the intimate associations
of the names with the history of the valley of Hudson's River, become
of especial interest.
In the arrangement of names geographical association has been adopted
in preference to the alphabetical, the latter being supplied by index.
This arrangement seems to bring together dialectic groups more
satisfactorily. That there were many variations in the dialects spoken
in the valley of Hudson's River no one will deny, but it may be asserted
with confidence that the difference between the German and the English
alphabets in renderings is more marked than differences in dialects. In
so far as the names have been brought together they form the only key
to the dialects which were spoken in the valley. Their grammatical
treatment is the work of skilled philologists.
Credit has been given for interpretations where the authors were known,
and especially to the late eminent Algonquian authority, J. Hammond
Trumbull. Special acknowledgment of valuable assistance is made to the
late Dr. D. G. Brinton, of Philadelphia; to the late Horatio Hale,
M. A., of Clinton, Ontario, Canada; to the late Prof. J. W. Powell, of
the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C, and his successor, William H.
Holmes, and their co-laborers, Dr. Albert S. Gatschet and J. B. N.
Hewitt, and to Mr. William R. Gerard, of New York.
The compilation of names and the ascertaining of their locatives and
probable meanings has interested me. Where those names have been
preserved in place they are certain descriptive landmarks above all
others. The results of my amateur labors may be useful to others in the
same field of inquiry as well as to professional linguists. Primarily
the work was not undertaken with a view to publication. Gentlemen of
the New York Historical Association, with a view to preserve what has
been done, and which may never be again undertaken, have asked the
manuscript for publication, and it has been given to them for that
purpose.
E. M. RUTTENBER.
Newburgh, January, 1906.