Help on Explaining 'issippi'

Scott Collins saponi360 at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 8 14:46:17 UTC 2013


Old names for the river include "Clinch's River" and "Pelisipi River" (and variant spellings such as "Pelisippi" and "Pellissippi").[1] The name Pellissippi that appears on some early maps is said to have been the Cherokees' name for the river and is said to mean "winding waters" in the Cherokee language.[2]
[2] "The Pellissippi State Story 1974-1998". Pellissippi State Community College. Retrieved July 24, 2013. Note: The Cherokee origin of "Pellissippi" is questionable, as there is no “P” sound in the Cherokee syllabary (D. Ray Smith. "View of the Bear Creek Valley". Retrieved July 24, 2013.).
 
I had looked in the name Mosopelea-sippi or Mosopeleacipi, a name the Indians called the Ohio River. This ending portion of the words used for river names is what I have been wondering about. The above mention of the old Indian name for the Clinch River is Pelisipi/Pelissippi/Pellissippi. When I first saw this I knew it was not a Cherokee name or word based on my research on the Mosopelea-sippi name and the possible connection to Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) and/or (the Shawnee place names for rivers).
Kis-ke-pi-la-se-pe ( another name for the Ohio River)
Other River Names with same endings:
Mississippi
Shipakicipi
Misseouscipi

The Ohio River (Seneca: ohi:yó) (Shawnee: Pelewathiipi or Spelewathiipi); 

In seeing a similarity with Pelewathiipi and Pelisipi/Pelissippi I am wondering what this means and whether it was a generic type of term or perhaps a descriptive term. Obviously the Clinch River isn't the same as the Ohio River so I'm curious as to how the Cherokee began to use this name for the Clinch.



Scott P. Collins
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