Ch8ca8a (long)

[carljweber]

RE: Ch8ca8a
2-25-02


Dear Mr. Rhodes,

I'd like to be meticulously precise about your two points on "Ch8ca8a," but
instead I'll provide an off the top summary and fill in the details as
required. My claim is that LaSalle named Chicago and popularized the name.
He coined "Checagou" as part of his grand continent-scale plan, his choice
of name under the influence of European rooted toponyms employed over a
century-and-a-half of European cartography.  My idea, based on a sequence of
maps, is that current "Chicago" as English, was borrowed in the spoken
language from the Miami/Illlinois, but cartographically from the English
through the French. The French were influenced by the Spanish, and the
Spanish by the Portuguese. Importantly, Mercator (mid-1600s) got his
"Hochelaga" and "Chilaga," with their -- as I claim -- water morphemes --
from Portuguese maps, NOT French. Several Iberian names, including,
apparently, "Canada," were mistakenly re-etymologized as Amerindian, based
on Cartier, 1535).

The  "Ch8-" (close to English "shoe") of Le Boulanger's dictionary's
"Ch8ca8a" (1720) must be reconciled with the "Chi-" of front vowel forms, as
you say, and how well I know. If "Ch8-" is considered Algonquian, you are
right. But, as my current thinking goes, it is European and is related to
French "Chuca-" ("to fall" + pronoun ), and is found earlier in Spanish, and
still earlier in Portuguese. I came across an interesting map from the early
1700s, published by the French Academy of Sciences, that spelled at the
bottom of Lake Michigan, "Chucagou," for the fifty mile Chicago Route, or
corridor, from the southwest tip of Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. On
the basis of this map, "Chucagoua," found in the French and found in the
chronicles of DeSoto, MIGHT be cognate with LaSalle's "Checagou." A
comparison of names as they appeared on important European maps from the mid
1500s through about 1700 yields some valuable conclusions, but the data is
not yet in with water morphemes from about half a dozen Franco/Iberian
languages. What, as a Latin derived toponym, does "Chiogigu" mean? On the
maps before 1600 it is the name of the mythic river that empties into the
north sea. Is it Galitian?

The Chicago Route was conceived by LaSalle earlier than 1680, when he first
wrote about it. He was continuing the conventions of historical European
cartography. The significance of the Chicago Route, as LaSalle wrote in his
reports, and put on maps, was that it was part of a grand scale plan for the
vast colonial empire of La Louisiane. The "Checagou" route marked the
Continental Divide for the Louisiana and Laurentian watersheds.
"Checagou" was taken from the nomenclature of mighty waterways, going back
to the era when Europe was enthralled by stories of the Northwest Passage to
China, a great inland freshwater sea (Mare Dulce), and a river
("Chiogigua"), in vastness comparable to the future Mississippi, drained a
continental basin discharging into the mythical North Sea, that was off the
coast of the mythical land at the end of the River Saguenay.

Before 1600, European maps typically show a mythical mighty river flowing
into the mythical North Sea. The toponyms of European (Portuguese)
cartography show "water" roots, before 1600 -- particularly for the great
river "Chiogigua" flowing north from Canada. After the gradual progressive
exploration of the Great Lakes, European cartography dropped its belief in
an inland north/south river that discharged to the north, and picked up the
belief that it went southerly, perhaps southeast to the Vermillion Sea, off
the Coast of southern California. After 1673 everything changed, and it's a
long story, with gaps.

The French Cartographer Sanson was the first to "-agua" as a loanword from
Spanish, rendered on French maps "-agoua." The "-ou + a" of French "-agoua"
is easily associated, incorrectly, I claim, with Algonquian grammar. French
"agoua," as a loan word from Spanish "agua," has appeared, as I could find,
only in one dictionary (of French Argot), and it was never considered a
French word by the Academy. Nonetheless, in the later 1600s, the French
borrowed the word for their maps, and recast it as "-agoua," "-aoua," and
other orthographies (cf. It crossed my mind the Chaouanons Indians might
have been called so by the French with this word in mind + "-anons" the
Huron/Iroquois word for "people."

Spanish "-agua" is seen in French "Chagouamigon," and its slightly shorter
forms "Chagoumigon," and "Chaouamigon," as they appeared in free variation
in the 1680s on the maps of Franquelin  (he was Canada's Royal
cartographer). Spanish "aua" can be explained as dropping the "g" from
"agua." French shows the same development ("aout": August) and in other
words. Joutel in 1684-87 wrote for the name of the Indians, "Chahouanons. "
The "-h-" seemingly representing a relic "-g-" of "agua."

Use of "-migon," after first use in the Jesuit Relations, about 1665, is not
easily etymologized in Algonquian. It is more likely from French, for
"favorite," with loss of nasal, but I'm not too sure. A beautiful on-line
image of Coronelli's map of 1688 gives a good workout of "Chagouamigon."
(http://www2.biblinat.gouv.qc.ca/cargeo/accueil.htm -- Look for 1688. It
even shows "Chagon" as an obvious abbreviation for "Chagouamigon." Coronelli
shows "-migon" in combination with French "Chou-" and Normande "Cou-." Look
at Green Bay. I take these to be the past participle of "choir," "to fall,."
with association of use with water. (Coronnilli got information for this map
from LaSalle on the later's second return trip to France in 1684 --
Franquelin was also along.)

The Indian "Ch8ca8a," (as seen in Le Boulanger's dictionary, 1720),
apparently borrowed from the French, "Choucagoua," was, before the
Mississippi was from north to south fully navigated in 1682, the name (after
1673/4) for a mighty river emptying into Mobile Bay (later called
"Chicagoua," 1697 to 1720). LaSalle used "Choucagoua" also for the Ohio
River, which takes a lot of explaining and a fuller discussion of DeSoto.

I hope this covers the two points you raised.

I'm still trying to find the water morpheme in Le Boulanger's two examples
(1720) of definition "il passe dans l'eau marche": 1. capa8a irach8ca8a. 2.
piman ch8ca8a. As I said, I think the "-a8a" was Iberian, passed on to the
Miami/Illinois by the French via historical cartography. Where is the
Algonquian water morpheme supposed to be? if not in loan "-a8a"?

The association of "Chicago" with the ProtoAlgonquian word for "skunk"
(i.e., urine + small animal + two grammatical suffixes, Frank Siebert, 1967)
is ultimately given authority by going all the way back to Le Boulanger
(1720). HOWEVER, next to the "skunk/onions" word, said to have named the
city, Le Boulanger wrote "abusive." That's been seriously overlooked in
etymologizing "Chicago" by way of "skunk."

My current hypothesis is that Miami/Illinois "Ch8ca8a," in Le Boulanger's
dictionary, was borrowed from the French, as chu + pronoun + "water." The
"chu-" from French "choir," and here referring to the falling of the river
over its course. This explains Chicago much better than the onions theory --
and the French Academy of Sciences DID write "Chu-" in "Chicago."

How French "chu/chue/chou" relates to LaSalle's "che-" continues as a
problem. I currently think the answer might be found in French/Iberian
regional grammar, maybe in irregular past participles of "choir." For
example, water  morpheme French "chou" in Normande is "cou." This might make
"couamis," the Algonquian for "beaver," actually a French loan compound for
"water friends." Does that sound unreasonable?

Regards,
Carl Jeffrey Weber,
Chicago