Caddo ethnic terms

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 28 Jul 2002, Wallace Chafe wrote:
> It's nice to find an excuse to talk about Caddo. Maybe this should be a
> Caddoan list too.

As far as I'm concerned folks are welcome to discuss Caddoan languages on
this list.  That parallels the Siouan and Caddoan Conference, certainly,
which has always been intended as joint.  A certain amount of explanation
may be required for benighted Siouanists.

> The Caddo word for Frenchman is especially interesting. It's ka:nush, with
> an accent on the first syllable. Hoijer's Tonkawa dictionary gives ka:nos
> for "Mexican", noting its origin in Mexicanos. I suspect that the Caddos
> borrowed it from the Tonkawas, though I suppose they could have invented it
> independently. Palatalization of s to sh after u is regular in Caddo, so
> it's a perfect match. Evidently this word first referred to any European,
> and then got narrowed down to Frenchmen, while ispayun came to be used for
> Mexicans.

I'm thinking that maybe Mexican as an ethnic term covering Euro-Americans
must date from Mexican independence, though, right?  But that would be
after 1821 (War of Independence 1810-1821), by which time the French no
longer figured as a colonial power in the area (Louisiana to Spain 1763,
to Franch 1803, to United States 1803), so it appears that the terminology
has been adjusted substantially in the 1800s.