birch (was Missouri)

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 2 Jan 2004, Alan Hartley wrote:
> I think it means 'birchbark' in the Algonquian languages. Gravier gives
> 8ic8essi 'canot d'ecorce, item ecorce de boul[e]au' ('bark-canoe, also
> birchbark'), and 8ic8essimingi is thus best translated as 'birchbark
> tree' rather than 'birch-tree tree'. The fact that Gravier glosses it as
> 'bouleau arbre' ('birch-tree') doesn't mean that 8ic8essi means "plain
> birch" in Illinois.
>
> An analogous term is the Proto-Algonquian name *wi:kopiminSya
> 'basswood', lit. 'house-bark tree' from wi:k- 'house, dwell' + -ekop-
> 'bark' + -eminSy-a- 'tree'. If Illinois 8ic8essi really meant
> 'birch-tree', then -imingi would be redundant.

In English trees that have some significant product have that product
named, and then the tree is the "(product) tree," as in apple : apple
tree, though, of course, you can also refer to the tree as an "apple" with
"tree" omitted, just to complicate matters.  The same thing seems to occur
in Omaha-Ponca, where s^e 's 'apple', and the tree is s^ehi 'apple tree.'
Similarly, corn vs. corn plant vs. corn (collective).
JEK