Wea

[David Costa]

The phonemic form of the tribe name is /waayaahtanwa/; /waawiyahtaanwi/ is
'eddy'; /waayaahtanonki/ (the locative of the first term) was the name of
Ouiatenon. I don't think phonemic */wiyaahtanonki/ existed.

I have an old French form for the word 'Ouaouiatanoukak'. I don't remember
where I got it, probably from McCafferty.

Also, don't forget Ojibwe <wawiiatan> 'Detroit', given by Baraga. This and
the M-I forms can be compared to Shawnee /waawiyawhtanwi/ 'water circles
around'.

Incidentally, there's a joke among the Miamis nowadays that "'Wea' is short
for 'We Ah Miami'".

Dave

> Incidentally, there are three forms of this toponym/ethnonym on record for
> Miami-Illinois: /waayaahtanonki/, /waawiaahtanonki/ and /wiyaahtanonki/. Note
> also that the term is generic in meaning ('at the whirlpool person') that it
> appears elsewhere, historically, in reference to other people.