Caddo ethnic terms

[Michael Mccafferty]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, David Costa wrote:

>
> >> What I do wonder about, now that I think about it, is the s^aglas^a family of
> >> terms, though probably not via this Dakotan version.  In other words, maybe
> >> the term originally was something like zakanas^, and lost its first syllable.
> >> I think zakanas^ or something like it is found in some Algonquian languages.
>
> Okay, duty calls again... :-)
>
> I think I might have talked about this with John K. many years ago, but the
> "(les) Anglais" term for Englishmen is all over non-Eastern and non-Plains
> Algonquian. The great majority of the time it still means 'Englishman', and
> *not* 'white person':
>
> Miami /aakalaah$ima/, /aanhkalaah$ima/
> Fox /sa:kana:$a/, Sauk /0a:kana:$a/, Kickapoo /0aakanaasa/
> Menominee /sa:kana:s/
>
> Ojibwean:
>
> Southwest Ojibwe /zhaaganaash/
> Ottawa /zhaagnaash/ 'whiteman, Englishman'
> Maniwaki /a:gane:$a:/ & /zha:gana:sh/
> Potawatomi /zhagnash/ 'Englishman'
>
> Cree-Montagnais:
>
> Plains Cree /akaya:siw/, Attikamek /e:kare:$$a:w/, Montagnais /ak at li$aw/ &
> Naskapi /ka:kiya:sa:w/.
>
> ($ = s-hacek, @ = schwa, 0 = theta)
>
> Note that while most of the languages retain a trace of the sibilant in the
> French article 'les', the article is missing from the Miami, Maniwaki
> Ojibwe, and the various Cree dialect forms.
>
> The odd one out here is Shawnee, which has an old word for 'Englishman'
> which can probably be phonemicized as /me:kilesima:na/. This seems to be
> taken straight from the English word "Englishman"; I admittedly can't really
> explain the initial /m/, unless it's influenced by the initial /m/ of
> Shawnee's word for 'white man', /mtekohsiya/ (/tekohsiya/ by the 20th
> century). Either way, this is yet another example of Shawnee NOT borrowing
> from French when everyone else did.
>
> David


The initial m- in this term could be a Shawnee attempt to catch the
indefinite article 'an' that is elided with the first syllable of
"Englishman," i.e., [@ nINglI$m at n]. In other words maybe it is
*Nenglishman that became Shawnee */me:kilesima:na/.

But yes, the Shawnee had little opportunity to borrow from the French in
early historical times. Even in 1671-2, when Marquette was learning
Illinois from a Illinois slave boy held by the Ojibwa, the French had not
yet encountered the Shawnee. The first Shawnee-French meeting I'm aware of
was on the banks of the St. Josephy River (of Lake Michigan) around 1680,
when a small band of Shawnee met La Salle there.

Michael