Norwich bulletin., 1920-12-03
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "YAEKEE.'

ORIGIN OF THE WORD YANKEE"
 There is still considerable controversy 1 as to the origin of the name ''YaII.ee" as applied especially to New Englanders. Many explanations for tine term has tecn sufficiently conclusive to base an absolute opinion.
 There seenls to be very good authority for the claim that the word Yankee was derived from the manner in which the h. dians endeavered to pronounce the word English, which they rendered Yepghees, whence the word "Yaakee."
 Tho statement in Irslng's "Knieler- lockers History of New York" concern ing the tribe of Yankees. is mere joke. and to this suggestion the New York Gazetteer added that the Yankees were 50 indomitable that the Puritans of New England, after suhdping them, adopted their name, according to an Indian GUS tom which gave the name of the con- auered to the conquerers.
 The statement tint there was q tribe of Indians known as Yankees is not to be relied upon, as no history of New England makes any mention of that re- doubtable tribe. nor can there be any au- thority for the belief that the custom spoken of by the Gazetteer ever existed among the abofigines of America.
 An effort has been made to attribute the name of the I:opular Revolutionary song, Yankee Doodle" the origin of which, an attempt has been made. to trace to the words "Yenghi Dcunia,n which is said to have been very good Persian for America It is hardly likely that such an insular and stationary peo- pie as the Persians should ever have heard of America to the extent that they would coin a word especially to express the name of the country.
 The word "Tanfee'' undoubtediy mad the Yenghees origin referred to above, but it does not seem to have been very common until the time of the Revolu- ] tionaFy war. So far as is known, the word is contained in no writings previous | to that time, and in letters in which the word occurs written in 1775, it is referred 1 te in q manner in which the writer con- sidered it sonething new, and intended to be contemptuousiy sed as 1t was by their \ then enemies the British soldiers. Noah Webster in his dictionary gives the Yankees origin of the word upon the i authority of Heckewelder, and that fact
 may account for its being looked upon in New England as something new. Hecke- welder is excellent authority upon Indian l subjects but he speot his time princip lily among the Deiawares and the Six Ma. tions, and was not likely to be well &C., quainted with the Massachusetts Indians, who spoke a different dialect.
 l Several of the British regiments who were transferred to Boston after tie be-
 ginning of the troubles had been station- | ed in the middle colonies, and had con id
 erable experience in Indian warfare, and
 may have thus acquired a knowie 1ge of the word. The 18th, or Royal Irish. for instance had been engaged in nearly all the battles which had taken place in the coloniss during two French wars and they had acquired much familiarity witt; American affairs
 | That the word '~Yankeese was rather uncommon in New England is shown by various letters written from there One from Rev. William Gorden, published in tfe Pennsylvania Gazette of May 10 \ 1775, giving an acce pnt of tte siSirmishes Il at Lexington and Concord, says: sTi.ey
 fthe British troops) were roughly hand cd by the Yankees, term of reproach for
 the Nv Englarders. when applied by tho Iregulars,'
 Another letter. published m the sarnr
 paper a few weeks later, dated Hartford Conn, gives an accorfat of the capture ci several letters from English officers 1T Boston to their friends in England. ana says some of them are full of invectives
 against the poor Yankees, as they cal
 us.'
 From these facts tt seems probable tha the word was 50 unusual in New EngiaYt } that the writers thought theraselve. :, obliged to explain it It was soon, how. lever, adopted, and In few months there after the citizens of Newhury fiitet. o,,t z privateer called the Yankee Hero" Tn,
 name Ehertiy afterwards began to b,
 used generally when speaking of the New
 Engianjers, being spelled at times Yan kie, Yanko, Yankoo, Yanku and Yenkee
 as if its orthograpisy was not settled. A the present time the word is only applied ,l in the United States to inhabitants of thu { New England states. but 'ereigners use | 3 to designate all Americans
 fTomorrow-Log Cabin md Hard Ci1e
 Czsupaign.)