Word for 'prairie'

[Michael Mccafferty]

Bob's comments about prairie and plains makes me think of something I saw
recently in a French trader's itinerary, where he calls the the wet
prairie of the Kankakee a "plaine" (actually spelled "plenne") and then in
parentheses, to explain what he means, he says "pays bas," which means
"lowland". From this account it appears that in the West, Frenchmen were
using "plains" to mean something slightly different from what is typically
taken as the meaning of the word. It should be noted (or not :-) that the
Kankakee area, except for a long the edge of the river itself, was almost
treeless (there were exceptions--timbered moraines here and there and the
occasional windblown "mound" of sand covered in oaks).

Michael

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, R. Rankin wrote:

> Personally, I've always distinguished 'prairie' from 'plains'.  Prairie has more
> trees scattered about, plains fewer.  This, in turn, relates to annual rainfall
> in large degree.  And I assume lots of other factors like soil type, etc. are
> involved.  The folks I'm corresponding with in Central KS are botanists however,
> and their primary interest is in the "tall grass prairie" found in that area.  I
> sort of suspect they might have naming in mind or maybe some sort of newsletter
> article.
>
> I have one or two linguistic comments on the Hochunk and Hidatsa forms, but I'll
> get to them after classes today.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>