How! (was Re: Catawba 'go' & 'come')

BARudes at aol.com BARudes at aol.com
Sat Apr 10 14:55:09 UTC 1999


The fact that the word <a^o> = hau is recorded for Huron by French Jesuits
(it appears, for example, in the Rev. Pierre Potier's manuscripts which are,
for the most part, copies of the manuscripts of Chaumanot, who recorded the
Huron language in the mid-seventeenth century) long before the Huron had
substantial contact with English speakers makes it unlikely that the word is
borrowed from English <how>.  Also, the range of meaning in Iroquoian
languages (o.k., all-right, sure, welcome, come on in) would be hard to
derive from the meaning/usage of <how> in English.



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