birch (was Missouri)

[Alan Hartley]

David Costa wrote:

>>>It's an archaic morpheme that's not attested in modern Miami, so I'm not
>>>positive what it means. But it's not the basic word for 'bark'. Judging from
>>>Gravier's Illinois form <8ic8essimingi> 'bouleau arbre' ('-imingi' = is a
>>>morpheme meaning 'tree'), it probably means 'birch', so <8ic8es mis8ri> and
>>>its alternate <8ic8essi> would actually mean 'BIRCH boat'.
>
>
>>But I imagine the operative idea here is that of the BARK of the birch, not
>>the birch-tree itself, so 'birchbark boat'. Cf. Ojibway wi:kwa:s 'birchbark,
>>birch-tree' and wi:kwa:si-^ci:ma:n 'birchbark canoe'.
>
>
> Of course. But that's in the English. My point is just that the Illinois
> root <8ic8ess-> seems to mean plain 'birch'.

I think it means 'birchbark' in the Algonquian languages. Gravier gives
8ic8essi 'canot d'ecorce, item ecorce de boul[e]au' ('bark-canoe, also
birchbark'), and 8ic8essimingi is thus best translated as 'birchbark
tree' rather than 'birch-tree tree'. The fact that Gravier glosses it as
'bouleau arbre' ('birch-tree') doesn't mean that 8ic8essi means "plain
birch" in Illinois.

An analogous term is the Proto-Algonquian name *wi:kopiminSya
'basswood', lit. 'house-bark tree' from wi:k- 'house, dwell' + -ekop-
'bark' + -eminSy-a- 'tree'. If Illinois 8ic8essi really meant
'birch-tree', then -imingi would be redundant.

For paper/white/canoe birch, besides Bloomfield's Menominee form
wi:ki:hsa:htek cited by Alan K, there's Rogers' Northern Ojibway
wi:kwa:ssa:htik. Both mean literally 'birchbark-tree' and consist of the
word for birchbark plus the Proto-Algonquian medial *-a:htekw- 'stick,
stem'.

I think Illinois 8ic8essi is thus just what Gravier defined it as,
'birchbark'.

Alan H.