ASB puza

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> I'm wondering if the term couldn't be explained as follows: First, we
> have the Proto-Algonquian term *pes^iwa for "feline". This word
> evolves to something like *poos in some east coast Algonquian
> dialects.  Somewhere around 1500, North Atlantic sailors of the
> English/Teutonic sphere begin to reach the northeast coast of North
> America.  Intercourse is established, and the sailors find that the
> Indian term for their ship-board cat is something like "puss".

That's at least an extremely interesting hypothesis.  I wonder what
Indoeuropean-based etymologists would make of it?  A lot would depend on
an exact dating and maybe locations of the first citations of the European
forms, and on the availability of suitable model forms.

You might want to look also at Basque and Portuguese.  I believe there are
traces of a Basque-based pidgin in New England - an article in
Anthropological Linguistics?  Most of the very early contact with New
England and adjacent areas involved the whaling and cod-fishing
industries, and I have the impression that it's thought that this began
before Columbus' voyages, or not long after, and more or less
independently of them.  The whalers and fishermen processed their catch on
shore, especially on off-shore islands and overwintered in some cases to
do this - which certainly produced pre-Colonial contact.  They were
generally secretive about their activities to avoid competition, and their
activity is more evidenced archaeologically and linguistically (the Basque
pidgin) (and by the evidence of their catches) than in narrative
documents.