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Native North American Much of English is made up of words from other languages, and Native North American languages, especially those in the Algonquian family, are significant contributors in this respect, particularly to U.S. and Canadian English. To begin with, many names of states and provinces, of rivers. lakes, and other geographic features are of Native American origin. Although the early European settlers preferred European names for their political divisions, during the 19th century state names with Native North American origins were adopted with increasing frequency, from Ohio in 1803, through Arkansas in 1836 and Oregon in 1859, to Utah (named for the Ute people) in 1896. All in all 26 U.S. states and 6 Canadian provinces or territories have such names. The older, eastern states with Native American names, Massachusetts and Connecticut, share them with a bay and a river, respectively. Major rivers also give their names to the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. Other landscape terms of Native American origin include four of the five Great Lakes - Erie, Huron, Ontario, and Michigan - as well as others such as the Susquehanna River, the Niagara Falls and Yosemite Falls, and the Adirondack, Allegheny, and Appalachian mountains. In Canada the name of the country itself is said to come from an Iroquoian word kanata meaning "village, community," and, for example, Quebec, Manitoba, Yukon, and Saskatchewan are of Native North American origin; in 1991 the Inuktitut name Nunavut (literally "our land") was officially adopted for the larger part of Arctic Canada.
In identifying indigenous peoples the incoming Europeans often adopted Native North American names, either the people's own name, as Dakota (from Dakota, "allies"), Haida ("people"), or Tsimshian (from Tsimshian čamsián "inside the Skeena River"), or an ally's, enemy's, or stranger's name, as Arapaho (from Crow alappahó "many tattoo marks"), Menominee (from Ojibwa manōminī "wild-rice person"), or Mohawk (from Narraganset mohowawog "man-eaters"). Sometimes the English name is mediated through North American French, for example, Assiniboin (via French from Ojibwa), Cheyenne (via French from Dakota), and Sioux (from a shortening of French Nadouessioux, from Ojibwa nātowēssiwak), or through Spanish, as Comanche (ultimately from Southern Paiute or a related language), Navajo (via Spanish from Tewa navahū "fields adjoining a ravine"), and Yaqui (via Spanish from Yaqui Hiaki). Sometimes a word is translated, for example Blackfoot, from Blackfoot Siksika. Occasionally a European term was adopted by Native North Americans themselves and then passed to English, as Seminole, which came from Creek simanó:li but goes back to American Spanish cimarrón "wild, untamed."
Words relating to Native North American artifacts and ways of life have become familiar to English speakers, often extending far beyond their original cultural reference. The moccasin, for example, (early 17th century, from Virginia Algonquian) is now a generic word for a type of shoe; tuxedo (named for a country club in Tuxedo Park, New York, but ultimately from an Algonquian word for "wolf") refers to men's evening attire; powwow (from Narraganset) has come to be used informally for any meeting or gathering to discuss something; sachem (early 17th century, from Algonquian), originally a Native North American chief, was later applied to a leader or official of Tammany Hall (itself from the name of a Delaware chief, Tamanend); the tomahawk (from Virginia Algonquian) is now any small short-handled ax; totem (from Ojibwa nindoodem "my totem") is used generally for something treated with the kind of respect normally reserved for religious icons. Names of food adopted into English include hominy (a contraction of Virginia Algonquian uskatahomen "that which is ground"), pone (from Virginia Algonquian poan "thing roasted or baked"), samp, which has moved into South African English as well, squash (a shortening of Narraganset asquutasquash "green things that may be eaten raw"), and succotash. Still other terms from Algonquian languages remain in their original cultural context, for example, manitou, sagamore, watap, wendigo (a demonic creature of Algonquian folklore), and wickiup. From other peoples and languages come tepee (Dakota), muckamuck (Chinook Jargon), and kachina (Hopi).
Flora and fauna naturally form important categories of words of Native North American origin. Algonquian-named animals include, for example, the chipmunk (from Ojibwa ajidamoonʔ, literally "one that comes down trees headlong"), opossum, raccoon, terrapin (an alteration of Virginia Algonquian torope), and wapiti (from Shawnee). Altered by folk etymology to conform to English expectations are muskrat (from Algonquian muscasus) and woodchuck; whiskey jack, the gray jay, was originally whiskey john, from Cree wiskatjan. Showing the complexity of interaction between European and Native American languages is kinkajou, from a French word quincajou "wolverine" that is probably a blend of one Montagnais and one Ojibwa word. Some other names of animals come from non-Algonquian languages, for example, the lizard the chuckwalla (via Mexican Spanish from Cahuilla), and the sewellel or mountain beaver (from Chinook šwalál "robe made of mountain beaver skin"). Algonquian is a significant source of shellfish and fish names: cohog or quahog, mummichog, muskellunge (via Canadian French maskinongé from Ojibwa maashkinoozhe "big fish"), scup, tautog, and more. Representing other languages are, for example, abalone (via Spanish from Shoshonean) and quinnat salmon (first element from Chinook).
Trees and other plants, their fruits, wood, and other products have often retained or acquired Native North American names, for example, from Algonquian chinquapin, cohosh, hackmatack, hickory, persimmon, puccoon, saskatoon, tamarack (via Canadian French), tuckahoe, and, combining with English, atamasco lily. Names from other languages include catalpa and tupelo (from Creek), coontie (from Seminole), sego lily (first element from Southern Paiute), and yaupon (from Catawba).
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