iron/ metal [and other loans and calques]

[Alan Hartley]

Koontz John E wrote:

> I tend to think that the fairly widespread expression for "money," 'white
> metal', cf., e.g., OP maNze ska, more or less maN(s)ska in regular speech,
> was originally a calque of French argent, i.e., 'white metal' = 'silver'.
> I don't know how widely spread 'white metal' formations are in North
> America.  It might be interesting to track down the distributions of forms
> like this, 'fire water' (< eau ardent?), and so on.  I believe they occur
> in at least Siouan and Algonquian, and I think they are probably more or
> less coextensive with such probable actual loans as kkokkomaN 'cucumber'
> or kkukkusi 'pig' (OP forms), presumably from concombre and (certainly
> from) couscous, or, for that matter s^aglas^a 'British' (Da) or ragras^iN
> 'British' (IO), presumably from les Anglais/l'Anglais.

Ojibway
--
waab-aabik 'tin' (lit. 'white metal')
biiw-aabik 'iron'
miskw-aabik 'copper' (lit. 'red metal')
biiw-aanag 'flint'

z^ooniyaa 'silver' (< Sp. or Fr.?)

is^kode-waaboo 'liquor' (lit. 'fire-water')

z^aaganaas^ 'English' (prob. < Fr. [le]sanglais)

--

Incidentally, are you all aware of Frank Siebert's (1967) suggestion
that Proto-Algonquian *ooteeweni 'town, village' was borrowed from
Siouan (cf. Da oti)? He also suggests that Da s^kec^a 'fisher (Martes
pennanti) is from PA *wec^yeekwa and Da teteni^a, Catawba tinde 'blue
jay' from PA *tiintiiwa (but onomatopoeia?) and notes several other
suggestive similarities (Natl. Mus. Canada Bull. 214 pp. 48-59).

Alan