River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-05-14
cuRloSITIES I'M NAMES.
Derivation of Many Common Englis
Feminine AppeIlations.

connected with the old Indian names of
the American continent, there is none
more curious and remarkable than the
fact that many of our common English
ellations-especially names of fe-
males-are discoverable in the ancient
titles of the red men. And at the same
time IL Is known also that the occur
renee is not the result of any effort ON
the part of the aborigines of the country
to reproduce the English or European
words or To insert them knowingly in
geographical titles.
We find, for instance, the name Anna
in the aboriginal titles of many Ameri-
can rivers, as in Fluv-anna and Riv-
aspirate form, as Hannah, is in Susque-
hannah, of Pennsylvania. and in Han
nah-hatchie, of Georgia. Hannah
hatchie means the Hannah river
hatchie being a term in many of the alb
original southern dialects for river.
The term as Anna is found in many In
dian names of waters-sometimes in
the pronunciations, as aw-nee Or wau-
nee, as in Lackawannah or Suwanee.
Aunee or Auna is a term found in sew
eral of the old Semitic languages for
stream or fountain. In the Hebrew it
is abbreviated as on and en-. In Arabic
it is either auna or ain.
Our names Sarah and Sallie are found
in many Indian names of waters. sal
laeoi, or SallaquOy, is in Tennessee and
Georgia. Sara is the old native name
of bayou in Louisiana. Sara is in the
New York name Saranac, or, as prop
orly written. Saranacca, for our fore
fathers, not content with suppressing
the red man himself. suppressed much
of his language-especi the final
vowel sounds in the Manassas these
finals were supposed to be but a super
fiuous cultural of the savage tongue,
This old Indian name Saranacca is pre-
cisely the same word which the ancients
had for the 4Egean sea--SarOnica-in
Latin feminine. Sara is also an ancient
OLD world word for river. The
modern Arabic sur, suhr or shur
is a corruption of the true word,
which has gone also into the English
name Surrey. But few persons are
aware of the fact that Sallie is simply
an oriental pronunciation of the word
we write Sarah. The Chinese especial
ly reject the sounds of in all words,
using the sounds of |. Many people all
over the world find it difficult to enun-
ciate the letter +. Such people almost
invariably use / in the interchange.
The old natives of the Sandwich islands
are unable to even hear the sound of 1
when uttered on other tongues. The
languages of both China and the Sand
witch islands have no T. Many of our
old Indian tribes rejected the sound OF
r, using instead. The two letters APP
pear to be used INTERCHANGEABLE in
many languages, both ancient and
modern. And hence our name
Mary is sometimes expressed natural
ly as Mainly, or, as we write the word,
Mollie. There are numerous other in
terchanges that are common and uni
versal in languages. The labials--the
letters sounded in the closing of the
lips-b, IN. p. f, v,-are subject to many
curious interchanges, and hence the
corruption of Polly for Mollie or Mary
and hence, also, the corruption of Patty
for Matte. or Patsy for Martha.
The name Patsy is in the Indian APP
pellation Patsaliga, river in Alabama.
Matte is in Mattapony of Virginia, and
Mattawamkeag of Maine. Mollie is in
the word Guata-maula, in Central
America. The nearest approach we
have to Mary is in Maricabo, of South
America, and Mariposa, of California.
The word Mariposa is said to signify
butterfly river" 1t is the Indian name
of beautiful water in the Sierra Ne
vada mountains. The term Mare is also
ancient Latin for the sea.
The name Lucy is heard in several
Indian appellations of waters, as in
Lousahatchie, of Tennessee. LOUISA is
a word used for river names in many
tongues. In Russia it is spelled Looza.
and the Central African explorers write
1t LULA or Louza.
Our sweet name Ella is in the pure
Indian word Ellijay-a river of Georgia.
Sue is in many Manassas in Sioux tSoo),
Suwanee and Suisun (Soosoon, of Cali
formal.
Callie is in Calaqua, or Chalaqua,
which is the ancient Cherokee appella
ton of the Tennessee river-the word
corrupted, also into Kallamuclxee
Chalaqua is the true original of the
word Cherokee" itself-the Cherokee
Indians rejecting the sounds of r in
their dialect. Kalla is in our name Kali
lamazOo.
The name Winnee is in many Indian
appellations-as in Winnebago, Winnie
muckee and others. The term 'muckee,
seen in this last tNevada) name, and in
the Tennessee title, Kallamuckee, means
in the Indian big water" The Win
nemckee is a beautiful lake lying Just
east of the Sierra Nevada mountains
II is famous for its salmon or wine-col
ored fish. the term ''winnee" signifyinl
in the old Indian, ''wine-colored,' OF
tinged with color. Winnee is the alb
original name of a river in South Caro-
lima, its waters so darlxlv tinged that il
is now commonly called the Black river
Minnie, a popular female name, i.
said TO be term in the Sioux dialect foi
water. It is in many of the northwest
ern names of waters-as Minnehaha
Minnetonqua, Minnesota, etc.
Many other names are reproduced il
the Indian. Willacoochee is a river il
Florida. Tombeckbee is the Indian o.
river in Alabama, now commonly
called TOmbigbee. Toma-lis-oo was one
of the aboriginal names of the Missis
sippi river, and Tomba is river in
China. A hundred other illustrations
would not exhaust the subject.-M. V
Moore in Detroit Free Press.