abundant press...

[Dale McCreery]

Boston was a term for Americans in Chinook Jargon, spoken all over the
pacific northwest, throughout BC and into Alaska and the Klondike with the
gold rush, and has been borrowed into pretty much every language in BC as
Boston, boosn, baaston, etc.  It had a lot of secondary meanings as well -
Boston wawa (american speech) meant lying, or here in Sgüüxs dialect of
Tsimshian boosn-g̱aws is a top hat.  We also have Boston Bar in the
Frasier Canyon.

I wonder if the words in Delaware come from the Jargon as well, or were
borrowed independently?

Dale

> In a message dated 4/18/2011 4:11:20 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> whalen at HASKINS.YALE.EDU writes:
>
> Great  story--congrats!
> Wasn't "pashtone" (< Boston) an Algonquian  term for "white man"?
>
> There  is a word in the Lenape (Delaware Indian) language, Pashtank, but
> it
> doesn't  just mean white man, but specifically it is a name for any person
> who doesn't  like Indians.
>
> Jim
>
>
> Jim  Rementer, director
> Lenape Language Project
> Bartlesville, OK,  74006
> [www.talk-lenape.org]
>