OT: name of Vancouver BC

[David Robertson]

Off topic a little, but maybe interesting:

Ts'amas / Ts'amis / Ts'am'as

is the name of Vancouver, BC in languages of at least 3 unrelated families:

Wakashan, Salish and Tsimshian.

A Kwak'wala speaker has told me it means "pointing place", referring to the 
spires of all the churches in a city.  She has it as the name of Victoria, 
BC as well as of Vancouver.

I wonder how this name got shared so widely? Victoria is older, and for a 
while was more important than Vancouver, so that may be the older meaning.  
And if the name is Kwak'wala (Kwakiutl), does that help explain its wide 
distribution?  (Speakers of Kw. & closely related languages traditionally 
live in territories pretty far northward from here.)

-Dave R.

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