wattap etymology?

[Ross Clark (ARTS DALSL)]

Wat'up, Dave?
I'm embarrassed to admit that, despite my BC upbringing, this word is completely new to me. 
I found oddly differing accounts of it in the two sources I looked in: OED Online, and A Concise Dictionary of Canadianisms (Avis et al., 1973). 
What they agree on is that it's Algonquian. OED cites Narragansett, CDC cites Ojibwa and Cree.
OED has a nice explanation of what it is from Alexander Mackenzie (1789), and a second quote from A.Henry, Travels (1809), and that's all. No indication that it's still known and used. CDC has several citations, beginning with the same Henry quote, but dated to 1761!! What's going on there?
They also give contradictory accounts of the pronunciation. OED says WOTap (vowels of "hot tap", with initial stress), while CDC gives woTOP (two "hot" vowels with final stress). Since I don't think I've ever heard the word spoken, I can't offer a personal opinion. What do you and others say?
 
Ross Clark

________________________________

From: The Chinook List on behalf of David Robertson
Sent: Tue 4/10/2005 4:10 p.m.
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: wattap etymology?



Ives Goddard has an article "Algonquian Linguistic Change and
Reconstruction" in the volume edited by Philip Baldi, "Linguistic Change
and Reconstruction Methodology", published in 1990 by Mouton de Gruyter.

In this article, Goddard mentions a Proto-Algonquian cognate for Yurok &
Wiyot (NW California, distant relatives of Algonquian), all forms in the
set meaning 'spruce root' apparently.

The form in PA is *watapya.  The Yurok is 7wohpeG (G=gamma), the Wiyot is
to`p.

Is this not the word we know in English as <wattap>, among other spellings,
in historical sources?  I'd thought it was a NW word, but it looks possible
that it's from back East, from some Algonquian language. 

I don't have access to a specialized enough dictionary of English here at
home, so I wonder if someone else can tell about this.

--Dave R

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