horse paper

[David Costa]

The prenoun represented by Miami /leni-/ and PA */elen-/ can also mean
'ordinary, regular' in some constructions in some languages, such as Ojibwe
/ininishib/ 'mallard', i.e., 'ordinary duck'. Looked at that way, an
'ordinary wolf' etymology for 'coyote' makes sense in that as the M-I
speakers gradually moved into areas where wolves were more and more scarce,
they were also coming into regular contact with coyotes for the first time.
Either way, the Potawatomis also came up with the exact same name for
coyotes, /nunim?we/ in that language ('?' = glottal stop, 'u' = schwa).

David


> A parallel case might be made in the case of  Miami-Illinois /mahweewa/
> 'wolf', an animal known to Algonquians from day one, and Miami-Illinois
> /lenimahwia/ 'real wolf', the term for "coyote," a prairie animal that was
> not there from day one.