birch (was Missouri)

[Alan Hartley]

David Costa wrote:

> Tho one problem is that this would actually produce a form *wi:kekopimin$ya,
> not *wi:kopimin$ya (the /o/ should really be /we/), so you'd need haplology
> to make this work

Siebert (1967) reconstructs PA *wi:kopiminSya 'basswood' on the basis of:

   Fox wi:kopimiSi
   Menominee we:kopemeh
   Ojibway wi:kopi:mi:SS
   Shawnee wiikopimiiSi
   Miami-Illinois wikopiminSi
   Penobscot wik at pimisi [@ = schwa]

Whether he was warranted in his assertion that it comes from PA *wi:k-
'shelter, house, dwell' + *-ekop- 'bark' I don't know, but it does make
sense semantically--if not haplologically! (Incidentally, the word was
borrowed into English in late 18c. as wicopy, with at least 3
fiber-yielding referents.)

> do we know that basswood bark was used for
> houses? I always thought the salient usage of basswood bark was for cordage.

Yes, it was used in houses, and yes, it's main use was as cordage. Among
the Ojibway, at least, basswood bark (or fiber prepared from it) was
used for lashing together the pole framework of wigwam-style houses and
securing the sheets of birchbark to the frame.

Wigwam (Abenaki) and wickiup (Fox) also come from the root *wi:k-, as
perhaps does the birchbark word.

Alan H.