Question About A Word

[Marianne Mithun]

Dear Scott,

It's unlikely that they have much in common. Tionontati is a completely 
transparent Iroquoian name:

   T-io-nont-(a)-ti
   CISLOCATIVE-NEUTER-mountain-(linker)-be.on.the.other.side.of
   '(it) is beyond the mountain(s)'

This verb root is the same as that in Schenectady, but there the 
incorporated noun is   -hneht- 'pine'.

Hard to say exactly what your second name is. There are various 
possibilities, but if it is Iroquoian, the key parts, the roots, are 
different.

Marianne Mithun


--On Saturday, January 16, 2010 12:13 PM -0800 Scott Collins 
<saponi360 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> I was wondering if anyone may be able to help me find out if the
> following names may have anything at all in common, Tionontati and
> Tegninateo.
>
> Tionontati is the name of the Tobacco Tribe that was a part of the Huron
> and Erie alliance.
> Tegninateo was the name of a village of the Manahoac in the Culpepper
> County, VA area.
>
> I understand that the Huron and Erie were Iroquoian speakers and that the
> Manahoac were Siouan speakers. I am wondering if there could be any
> possible way that the words may a similar origin or if they may be
> connected in any way.
>
> It is my understanding that the Huron and Erie had a trade relationship
> with the Monacan, Saponi/Tutelo and Manahoac via the town of Monton on or
> near the Kanawa River in present day West Virginia. I'm sure it is a huge
> leap to make an assumption like this, but I am curious if these words
> have a connected use, origin, or meaning.
>
> One other interesting observation that I made while reading was as
> follows:
>
>
>
> ?American Folk Medicine? by Wayland Debs Hand
>
> Page 132 (See Note 40 as source)
>
> ?Pumpkin was the ?maycock? of the Virginia Algonquians??
>
> Note 40
>
> Peter Kalm, Peter Kalm?s Travels in North America, 2 vols. (New York:
> Wilson-Erickson Inc., 1937), Il, 517.
>
>
>
> What I am wondering about this entry is whether the "maycock" that is
> mentioned here as it relates to pumpkins may have anything whatsoever to
> do with the other name the Manahoac were known by and that is Mahock?
>
> I come by this line of speculation because in my research on the name
> Saponi I came across the reference to the Algonquin word Supawn or Sa-pon
> for boiled Indian meal and translates into "softened by water". Tracking
> down corruptions in trade jargon and Native American pigin language leads
> me to these speculations on trying to tie in local names of tribes or
> towns to trade partners. I may be completly off on this line of thought,
> but wanted to present it to to see if anyone had any feedback or
> insights.
>
>
>
> Scott P. Collins
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR
>
> Evil Is An Outer Manifestation Of An Inner Struggle
>
> ?Men and women become accomplices to those evils they fail to oppose.?