[Lexicog] Turkey

Michael McCafferty mmccaffe at indiana.edu
Thu Aug 25 19:12:00 UTC 2005


Unfortunately, I inadvertently erased Louis Garcia's response, so if anything 
I say here repeats his words, please forgive me.

Just a couple of things: the French called the wild turkey "coq d'Inde," 
"India cock". Make of that what you will.

The term for the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopovo) is 
reconstructible for Proto-Algonquian: */pele:wa/, which includes the medial
*/-i?le:-/ 'fly', as in PA */wempi?le:wa/ 'he flies up'.

Miami-Illinois has /pileewa/; Shawnee /peleewa/.

As for the Spanish name for the turkey, that comes from the Nahuatl term for 
turkey cock, hueixolotl.

That's all I know. 

Michael



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