Introduction and Native Countries of the Siouans and Catawbans

[Rankin, Robert L]

Hi Travis,
 
> Here are some invented Siouan country names. . . .  The interpretation of "Monacan" and "Occaneechi" are from Speck's "Siouan Tribes of the Carolinas": http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294%28193504%2F06%292%3A37%3A2%3C201%3ASTOTCA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O
Amai Amañuhkañ : Monacan Country : "Land-People Country" This name is based on the interpretation of Monacan as "People of the Land", making the name "Land of the Land People". 

I'd have to say that it is unclear that the Monacans were Siouan-speaking.  They may have been, but there is no attestation of the language.

Amai Mani/it?a/ : Moneton Country :  The reconstruction of the name is from the Southeast volume of the HNAI. How would it be spelled in regularized Tutelo/Virginia Siouan instead of phonetic notation? For all of the Virgina Siouan names, where do the stress marks go?
 
This represents my work for Ives Goddard on this name.  It is not so much a "reconstruction" as a simple interpretation of the spelling in phonetic characters.  The name was parsed by the two gentlemen who discussed it in their travel journals.  Mani is 'water' and ithan is 'big' (related to Dakota thanka, etc.)  The "dephoneticized" way to write it would be "Moneton" or "Moniton".  Accent should be on the second syllable of both words in the native language.  In English it should be wherever you want it.  Personally, I put it on the 1st syllable.
 
The best current source on these S.E. tribal names and affiliations is the article by Ives Goddard in the journal "Anthropological Linguistics" about a year ago.  The only tribal names in that part of the East that we can actually be certain are Siouan are Tutelo, Saponi, Moneton and, presumably, Occaneechee (in any of their several spellings).  All others are speculative.
 
The person to talk with about the Catawban names is Blair Rudes, who reads this list.  Many of these names in the Carolinas are a matter of speculation also.  Just because we can analyze a name using Catawba vocabulary doesn't mean it was the name of a Siouan or Catawban-speaking people.  It may just mean that the Catawbas were the ones who named them to local explorers.
 
Best of luck with your project.
 
Bob Rankin