The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837
Various
Periodicals
Geographical terms, with the Indians, are found generally to unite
some natural quality in the features or productions of the country
with an indication of the locality; so that their names are not, as
with us, simple nominatives, but (as in all other cases in these
peculiar languages) the quality, action, etc., transfers itself to
the object, and is expressed in a consolidated phrase. This is one
of the most constant and distinguishing traits of these languages.
Their nouns and adjectives, therefore, as well as their verbs, are
transitives. Even their prepositions take a transitive character, and
link themselves, as with 'hooks of steel,' to the objects to which
they are applied. Thus their name for the island from which this
letter is dated, is Place of the Gigantic Faëries, or, by another
interpretation, Place of the Great Turtle. Detroit is, (literally
translated,) Round-ward, or Rounds-by Place, denoting the sinuosities
of the river in its approach. Sault St. Marie, 'At the Shallow Water
with Rocks.' In another class of derivative words, the union of the
substantive and adjective is without a local inflection, as in their
name for Lake Superior, which is simply called, The Sea Waters;
Mississippi, The Great River; Michigan, The Great Lake, etc.
This principle is found most fully to pervade the Mohegan. I
requested one of the chiefs of the party above referred to, to
pronounce their name for Long-Island. He replied, PAUM-NUK-KAH-HUK,
signifying, Place of the Long Land. The name of the coast opposite to
this island, at the mouth of the Hudson, or rather, across the Sound,
he pronounced MON-AH'-TON-UK. Dropping the local inflection UK,
meaning place, or land, we have the elements of Manhattan, the latter
of which preserves the original quite as well as the generality
of Indian names transmitted by English enunciation. Philologists
will perceive, farther, that the aspirate H would be very naturally
prefixed to the second syllable, while the sound of O, being the
sound of O in the French word _ton_, might be expressed, nearly as
well, by some of the modified sounds of A.
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