The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1854-06-09
ABonIGIyAL NoMEycLATURE.-No. !.

OF all the countries the earth, the United States
should be most attentive to precision this point from its
great extent Of abe SOIL and the intricate divisions
which II is therefore likely to be subject England which
is equally adapted to agriculture deduct the high
lands Of Scotland and Wales derives of the advantages
of precise postal system from the fact that she has not
rcpetitous geographical tcrminoiogy la the United
States county, erected in the western forests CON
sists generally Of about thrtytwo square miles, divided
into sixteen townships The States win each admit,
the average, hundred and fifty counties and will
each require for their legal subdivision their ultimate
point (say A. D. 2500 not less than thousand five
hundred names
The principal difficulty lies, 1t is appvhended, not with
Congress which besows only generic but with the
roria and State legislatures who have supreme urisdc
ton in the matter. Men not satisfied with such
Plowand and Harrow6ed merely because they nsu
They require something poetic, FOR there is old
Saxon love of rytbm in the ear and beyond all
they seek historical association with old homes far
away, and at least out of the wild bowling wilderness
where they -ncompassed by predatory fauna and
predatory tribes and subjected to all species of privatons
The first object to get smooth at least acvsound-
ing name which does recall any Of the around
them Now, the Indian terms generally poysyl-
Liable adopt and when translated they often relate
to Characteristic feature in the woods soils
around them re
There are too modes Of preparing aboriginal
tho legal incorporation Of the public domain advances
Inc hrst ~ the one winch has been in from the he
gnnngnamely the dropping Of unacccned novels mid
die syabes and the cson In almost every Of local
infections such the letters ny ons ing &c Such are
in existing Technology, the words Niagara Potomac
Chicago, which may be regarded the nuclei of the
original with their chrysas syIables clipped The other
mode is to select Indian by the settlers
and after submitting them to similar elsions to make their
euphony in their nonchy sails state the ground
ceptance Most persons who prefer Indian require
that u should be not only graphically yres,p but the
same time meiodous 70 refined ear This Is often npos-
sblei and very often difficult requiring in all cases
critical knowledge Of tho language the rootform of the
words the spro6Ses and alixes which lie like wr,n
pings around Them and that nice distinction Of vowel
sounds and Of tansposetives and equivalents which
govern the laws Of rehabilitation and enuncia,iop
for II Is among the pecuaries Of the habits OF the
Indian that his is nice Discrimination of the vocal
sounds Of bis gamut of language OF the several language.
whose vocabuaries have been studied, il may be affirmed
That the huscogee holds id their scale the place Of the
Italian the roquois Of the Greek and the Algonquin
which has been most cultivated, of the French. ar.t
The English ear seldom adopts Indian words Of NOR.
than hree syabes OF which the frequently the
andpcnultima,e, as in Ohio, oswtgo Chicago Tu.c6la
lascar Algoma In the roquois the local infections in
nga and aga have been generally retained with the accent
as in Tioga, Saratoga OnondAga Tconder6pa In other
words Of the like quantity in the Algonquin the accent
often the first syllable in Ottows, Agonac ossovn
Aegan OF the word Oregon, which falls under this rule
the etymoogy has heretofore dcicd scrutiny This name
think first appears in Carver in I7G6 where it used to
denominate the great river of the west flowing into the
Pacific The late Mr.. Gallstin, whom mentioned tho
subject some years ago, told he thought IL had been
used in some work Of fiction by the French prior to Car
YER This does not seem probable 0sragon in that Ian
guage means storm but have beard thai the sum-
init Of the Rocky mountains is tempeauous The termi-
nation in gon appears TO be the the infection in
0ntonagon and Nipagon heard with ltslc change
in the gan Of Michigan h
HENRY r. sCHooLCRAFT.