Transcript Slide 1

Indian Place Names
You Speak Native Languages Every Day!
Many Everyday Words Are Native American!
From the earliest contact between native people and those who came to the
"New World" there has been an exchange of foods, trade goods, animals,
lifeway skills, and languages! The language exchange went both ways. Native
Canadian groups adopted French terms still in use, and southwestern groups
in what is now the U.S. borrowed numerous Spanish terms. Russian words
influenced the Yupik and Athabaskan. Today, thousands of place names across
North America have Indian origins—as do hundreds of everyday English
words.
Many of these "loan words" are nouns from the Algonquian languages
(Lenape is a part of that language group) that were once widespread along
the Atlantic coast. When the English, encountered unfamiliar plants and
animals—among them moose, opossum, and skunk—they borrowed Indian
terms to name them, just as the Germans and other early Europeans did.
Pronunciations generally changed, and sometimes the newcomers shortened
words they found difficult; for instance, "pocohiquara" became "hickory."
Some U.S. English Words with Native Origins
1. bayou from the Choctaw "bayuk“
2. kayak from the Alaskan Yupik "qayaq"
3. Lennapeuhoksen became moccasin from the Lenape
4. moose from the Eastern Abenaki "mos"
5. pecan from the Illinois "pakani"
6. squash from the Narragansett "askutasquash"
7. tepee from the Sioux "tipi" (dwelling)
8. wampum from the Lenape "wampumpeak" a string of
white shell beads
9. Strength - wowasake* (WO-wa-shak-ay)
10.Honor - woyuonihan* (WO-you-o-nee-han)
11.Wisdom - woksape* (WOK-sa-pay)
12.Pride - wowitan* (WO-wee-tan)
U.S. States and Place Names
1. Alabama may come from Choctaw meaning "thicket-clearers" or
"vegetation-gatherers."
2. Chicago (Illinois): Algonquian for "garlic field" Or "Skunk Place."
3. Kansas from a Sioux word meaning "people of the south wind."
4. Michigan from Indian word "Michigana" meaning "great or large lake."
5. Mississippi: from an Indian word meaning "Father of Waters."
6. Nebraska from an Oto Indian word meaning "flat water."
7. Missouri named after the Missouri Indian tribe. "Missouri" means "town
of the large canoes."
8. Niagara (falls): named after an Iroquoian town, "Ongiaahra."
9. Oklahoma from two Choctaw Indian words meaning "red people."
10.Pensacola (Florida): Choctaw for "hair" and "people."
11.Ohio from an Iroquoian word meaning "great river."
12.North Dakota from the Sioux tribe, meaning "allies."
13.Texas from an Indian word meaning "friends."
14.Utah from the Ute tribe, meaning "people of the mountains."
15.Totowa - Between (meaning the falls are between the river and
mountain)
Pennsylvania Place Names
16.Pocono – a stream between mountains, or two mountains bearing
down with a stream between
17.Macungie – feeding place of bears
18.Lackawanna – forks of a stream
19.Allegheny – fair, beautiful river (several towns -- Alleghenyville (Berks
County, PA)
20.Aramingo – wolf walk (a county in PA and a street in Phila, PA)
21.Kittatinny – great mountain (west of Harrisburg, PA)
22.Manayunk – where we go to drink (section of Phila, PA)
23.Conshohocken – pleasant valley (town in PA)
24.Tulpehocken – turtle land (creek and town in Berks County, PA)
25.Perkiomen – where there are cranberries (creek in Montgomery
County)