[Lexicog] Turkey

[David Kaufman]

> A word in common usage in Guatemalan Spanish is 'chompipe'. I'm sure someone has worked out where that's from, but I don't happen to know about it. >
 
A Mayan dialect, perhaps?
 
It just occurred to me that the second Cherokee word I gave, kalagisa, may be related to the word for "goose" (sasa).  Not sure about the kalagi-, karaki- part.  Perhaps one of the Iroquoianists would know.
 
Dave


David Costa <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net> wrote:
A word in common usage in Guatemalan Spanish is 'chompipe'. I'm sure someone has worked out where that's from, but I don't happen to know about it. 

The Proto-Algonquian word for 'turkey', *pele:wa, can be etymologized as literally meaning 'flier'.

Dave C


I always found it fascinating that the words for "turkey" are usually quite different across Europe and even among the Latin languages themselves, e.g., Spanish (Cast.) pavo, Italian tacchino, French dinde or dindon, Portuguese peru'.  Different Spanish-speaking countries also borrowed indigenous words that they use in preference to the conquistador's Castilian word, as Jimm pointed out, such as guajolote in Mexico.
 
For what it's worth, the Biloxi word is ma (yoka), which seems to be related to the word for chicken, maxi.  The Cherokee words are gvna (v pronounced aN) and kalagisa.  Not sure if that helps anything.
 
Dave

Louis Garcia <Louis_Garcia at littlehoop.cc> wrote:
The Spirit Lake Dakota (Ft. Totten, ND) call the turkey Zizica [zee
-zee'-cha(another puzzle as the name means nothing).




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