[Lexicog] Turkey

[BARudes at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/25/2005 4:40:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
John.Koontz at colorado.edu writes:

On Thu,  25 Aug 2005 mmccaffe at indiana.edu wrote:
> Just a couple of things: the  French called the wild turkey "coq d'Inde,"
> "India cock". Make of that  what you will.

I tend to suspect that "turkey" in English "Turkey  bird"  derives from
this eastern connection - with one exotic heathen  not too carefully
distinguished from another.  The suggestion from  Nick Miller that the
whole scheme derives from using the same terms for pea  fowl, which also do
a spread-tail display, makes sense, and explains the  (East) Indian/Turkish
connection.

A wonderful childhood memory of  mine is being allowed to pick up as many
fallen peacock tailfeathers as I  liked on the grounds of an estate on the
Eastern Shore that kept a  flock.  A "distant uncle" - in the words of Hank
Williams - was  caretaker of the place.  Alas, peacocks usually don't drop
them until  they've used them a bit and then they walk around on them doing
what birds  do.  I think our mother may have edited our collection some
later  without telling us.





Some of the indigenous names for the ‘turkey’ on the East Coast  were: 
Virginia Algonquian (Powhatan) monanaw (and similar spellings) ‘a turkey’  
(William Strachey, 1612) -- It is perhaps noteworthy that the English were  
already calling the bird 'a turkey' during the early years of the Jamestown  
settlement. 
Narragansett neyhom (Roger Williams) 
Natick nahiam (Wood) 
Old Abenaki nahame (Rasles) 
Old Delaware tshikenum (Zeisburger) 
Catawba watkaN (or witkaN) su:riye ‘lit. wild fowl’ 
(modern Iroquoian forms are from the dictionaries published by University  of 
Toronto Press, Wally Chafe’s Seneca dictionary, and Gunther Michelson’s  
Mohawk dictionary) 
Old Tuscarora Coona ‘A Turkey’ (Lawson 1701) (modern Tuscarora keN:neN?  ‘
turkey’) (cognate with the Cherokee word gvna that Dave cited; also Nottoway  
kunum ‘turkey’). 
Cayuga sohoN:t  ‘turkey’  (Froman, Keye, Keye & Dyck) 
Seneca o?so:oNt  ‘turkey’  (Chafe) 
Onondnaga honuNdaheNhweNh, nedaheNhwah ‘turkey’ (Woodbury)  
Oneida skawilo:wane? ‘turkey’ (Michelson & Doxtator) 
Mohawk skawero:wane? ‘turkey’ (G. Michelson) 
Huron ondettontaque ‘coq d’inde’ (Sagard) 
Wyandot detoN:ta? ‘turkey’ (Barbeau) 
Blair
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