More on mountain beavers & NW English

[Dave Robertson]

Klahowya, Mike,

Your guess is as good as mine, at this point.  I'd better go to the website mentioned...  I have never heard of "mountain beavers", nor those "Chinook" names for them, in my life.  Note that one of the names is "kick-willy", presumably /kikwEli/ "under; beneath".  Underground?

Dave


Mike Cleven <ironmtn at BIGFOOT.COM> wrote:
>
> Dave Robertson wrote:
> >
> > ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >  In-Reply-To:  <200104270217.f3R2H1I02111 at e3g1.home.nyu.edu>
> >  Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> >
> >  On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, Gregory {Greg} Downing wrote:
> >
> >  > But note that she has suggested the possibility that the name "mountain
> >  > boomer," when used of a type of beaver in the Pacific Northwest, may have
> >  > something to do with the act of making booms (i.e., structures made of
> >  > floating logs), whereas the etymology in DARE appears to assert that
> >
> >  The name "mountain beaver" is a misnomer. They are not beavers but a type
> >  of borrowing rodent (Aplodontia rufa). They don't necessarily live near
> >  water, nor do they build anything from logs like true beavers. They look
> >  sort of like gophers but apparently have their own taxonomic line. See:
> >
> > http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/aplodontia/a._rufa$media.html
> >
> >  And, from the above site:
> >
> >  "Mountain beavers are not very social animals. Rarely do they go farther
> >  than a few meters from their burrows. Their home ranges overlap and each
> >  beaver defends its nest site. The sight and the hearing of the mountain
> >  beaver are very poor but their senses of smell and touch are well
> >  developed. Mountain beavers vocalize in the form of whistles and booming
> >  sounds. They also squeal while fighting and make a grinding noise with
> >  their teeth (Carraway, 1993)."
> >
> >  So, "mountain boomer" might be a reasonable characterization of them, but
> >  I have never heard them called anything but mountain beavers.
>
> Marmots?  Pikas?  Siffleurs?  I'm not sure what critter it is you guys
> are talking about here.  Does the 49th (Parallel) really make that much
> difference?
>
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