Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.Ruttenber, Edward Manning
History
Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them.
Ruttenber, Edward Manning
Indians of North America -- New York (State); Names, Geographical -- New York (State); Names, Indian -- North America
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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