iron/ metal

[R. Rankin]

Hi Jimm,

> Has it been determined the source of the word
iron [maza (L/Dak); madhe
> (IO); maNaNs (Winn); maNze (Q/K)].
> There was no known use of metal or iron prior to
the trading days with
> Europeans.  So is the word borrowed?

You ask a real good question and not one for which
there is a clear answer.  A couple of things
though:

1.  Metal was available in precontact times even
though smelted metals were not used in the Western
Hemisphere.  Copper occurs in its metalic form in
nature.  There are places where pieces of it can
be found lying around on the surface of the
ground.  This copper can be hammered into a
variety of shapes and this happened.

2.  Meteorites might also provide a small amount
of iron.  I don't think they had the means to melt
it into various shapes, but, again, it could be
pounded.

But metallurgy is very recent all over the world.
The "Iron Age" doesn't begin in Europe until
around 4 thousand years ago.  Before that, all
they had was copper (sometimes mixed with a little
tin to form bronze) too.

A friend of mine in California collected the words
for 'metal' in all the languages he could find --
European, Asian, American and all the rest.  The
words display some amazing similarities in
form/pronunciation.  I think his contention might
be that they all spread out from some spot in the
Old World where smelting of iron ore began,
including into the new world.  But it is
controversial, as you can imagine.

With Siouan, it is conceivable that 'iron' comes
from the older root for 'flint, chert', something
like *waN-.  But that too is just a guess.

I really need to get your disks back to you, even
though you got the dictionary from Ken, and pick
up my Wordperfect. . . .   :-)

Bob