The Arawakan meaning of Cunucu

Q: Ok I have another Arawak question. There is a breed of dog called the Arubian Cunucu. Apparently this kind of dog was bred by Arawak people in the Caribbean Islands and the name Cunucu is supposed to mean "country" or "countryside" in the Arawak language, but I can't find any confirmation of that. Is it true?

A: "Cunucu" (also spelled a few other ways such as cunuco, conuco, kunuku, etc) is a local Caribbean word for a farming field or for anything rustic. However, there is no word like this in any Arawakan language we are aware of.

The best etymology I have heard suggested is that it comes from an African language. In Bantu languages of Africa, words like "kuna," "kunu," and "kukuna" mean to plant or sow, and -ko and -ku are common noun endings. There are many Afro-Caribbean people, and words of African origin have often become part of the languages of this region.

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading

Arawak languages
Caribbean culture area

Blackfoot Numerals

Q: Thank you for your page about the Blackfoot alphabet. But I only see letters on the chart, not numbers. How do you write numbers in Blackfoot?

A:Using Arabic numerals, the same way English does-- 1234567890. Blackfoot, like most languages of the world, does not have its own numeral system.

The only indigenous culture of the Americas I know of which had developed a full numerical system of its own is the Maya civilization. Here is a link to the Mayan mathematical system, which uses Base 20 (as opposed to the Base 10 used by Arabic numerals.)

New symbols for base-10 numerals were developed for Cherokee and Inuktitut in post-colonial times, but most Cherokee and Inuit people continue to use the 1234567890 numerals even when they are writing words in their own scripts.

Q: If they didn't have numbers, does that mean they weren't able to count?

A: No. They had words for numbers ("one" is "ni't" in Blackfoot, "two" is "náátsi," "three" is nioókska," etc), just not special symbols for them. You don't need numerals to count, add or subtract-- only to do more complicated math, like the Arabs and Mayas did. Europeans didn't have a mathematical number system till the 12th century either, but of course they knew how to count and trade!

Many Native cultures kept track of numbers with tally marks, marking down the correct number of dots or lines and then counting them later. Some South American tribes, like the Incas, recorded numbers on a sort of abacus made of knotted strings, called "quipu" in Quechua. Here's a website about this innovative accounting system: Quipu, the ancient computer of the Inca civilization.

Hope that's interesting, have a good day!

The Arawakan meaning of Guajiro

 Q: On Wikipedia, it says that the Cuban word "guajiro" (which means a campesino or farmer and is the name of a certain style of Latin music) comes from an Arawak word meaning "lord" or "powerful man" but it says this is from an unreliable source. Can you confirm if it is true?

A: Yes, this is true. It comes from the Wayuu word "washirü," which means "rich" or "powerful" and was also used as a respectful way to address a man, like "sir." This word became the name of a Wayuu settlement in Colombia, whose name then became La Guajira in Spanish, and the Wayuu people (who are an Arawakan tribe) also became commonly known as Guajiros.

In Colombia, the word "Guajiro" can refer either to the indigenous Wayuu people, or to people of any ethnicity who live in the La Guajira region. In parts of the Caribbean, the word began to mean rural or rustic, and over time lost its association with Arawak or Indian people. In the well-known Cuban song whose refrain is "Guajira Guantanamera," that is not meant to suggest that the young lady is an Arawak, only that she is a country girl.

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading
Wayuu language

Cahuilla for Grandmother

Q: My mother comes from the Cahuilla tribe and I am expecting my first child, I would like to know the word for "grandmother" for my son or daughter to call her.

A: Congratulations! The answer depends on whether you are male or female. Children call their maternal grandmother (mother's mother) Tuutu in Cahuilla (pronounced too-too) and their paternal grandmother (father's mother) is Kaaka (pronounced kah-kah.)

Hope that helps, have a good day!

Further reading
Cahuilla language
Cahuilla culture

Kiwa'kwe

Q: Do you recognize the (Penobscot?) word Kiwa’kwe, documented by Frank G. Speck? It was the name of a game children played about a man-eating ogre, and, I understand, the ogre's name.

A: Yes, this is a man-eating ice giant of Wabanaki folklore. It is spelled many different ways such as Giwakwa, Kee-wakw, Kiwahq, etc. The reason for all the spelling variations is that the Wabanaki languages were traditionally unwritten. At the time Frank Speck wrote his book, there wasn't any standardized Penobscot alphabet. In the modern Abenaki-Penobscot spelling system, the word is spelled Giwakwa. Here's our online information about this legend: Giwakwa

Our Abenaki and Maliseet volunteers have also heard this was the name of a children's game, but it's not one they ever used to play so we couldn't tell you how it goes!

Mohawk Diacritical Marks

Q: On your website you give the Mohawk word for "bear" as Ohkwa:ri. On another website it says the word is spelled Ohkwá:ri with an accent mark. Which is the right way for me to spell it and why?

A: Some Mohawk/Kanien'keha people use diacritical marks (accents over the vowels), and others do not. The accent mark doesn't indicate a difference in pronunciation, it just shows which syllable is stressed (usually the next to last syllable, as in this word.) The stressed syllable is normally pronounced with a rising tone in Mohawk--if it is pronounced with a falling tone the accent mark is written in reverse, like à.

Fluent Kanen'kehaka speakers don't need accent marks to know how to pronounce a word-- after all, there are no accent marks in English to show where the stress is for each word, even though syllable stress in English is much more irregular than in Mohawk. However, the accent marks can be a useful tool for language learners--perhaps we should add them to our site!

The colon, by the way, indicates that the vowel before it is long. Some older Mohawk people leave that off as well, so you should keep your eye out for vowel length when reading Mohawk.

Further reading:
Mohawk language
Mohawk orthography standardization project

Guajajara last names

Q:  I was looking up an article about an indigenous activist who was killed last year, Paulo Guajajara. On the website I saw two other people, a politician (Sonia Guajajara) and an artist (Jahy Guajajara), who also have the same last name. But when I went to the links, I could not find any information to tell me if they are relatives or it's just a common last name for indigenous people in Brazil to have, can you explain?

A: Last names are not traditional in most indigenous tribes of South America. Many Native people have adopted Spanish or Portuguese last names, and some continue to use single names with no last name at all, but in some communities, indigenous people simply began using their tribal name as a surname. Guajajara is actually a tribe in Brazil, with almost 15,000 members, and most of them have the same last name. This is confusing to outsiders, but represents a strong sense of tribal identity to the people.

As far as I know, Paulo Guajajara was not a literal relative of Sonia Guajajara, but they are members of the same tribe.

Hope that helps!

Further reading:
Guajajara language
Indigenous people of Brazil
Native American names

Terrapins

 

Q: I was told that the word "terrapin" means "good to eat" in Native American, but I can't find it again. Do you know what language this comes from?

A: "Terrapin" was borrowed into English from an Algonquian word-- probably the Powhatan word torobe, which means "turtle." The Powhatan language is no longer spoken, but there are similar words meaning turtle in related Algonquian languages which are still spoken today, such as doleba (Abenaki) and tulpei (Lenape).

None of them mean "edible," "good to eat" or "tastes good," though. They only refer to turtles. The Abenaki word for "good to eat" is wigatôzo.

Hope that is interesting to you. Have a good day!

Further reading:

Powhatan language
Abenaki language
Lenape language
Native American turtles
   

Lakashi Tribe of Brazil

Q: I am looking for information about the Lakashi tribe and it isn't on your page of Brazil Indians.

A: That's because there is no Lakashi tribe in Brazil. It was made up by a white author who has never even met an indigenous Brazilian person to be a mystical prop in a romance book. She named them after her favorite cereal brand, Kashi. That's really all you need to know about that.

Hope that clears things up, have a good day!

Further reading:
Indigenous languages of Brazil
Literature by actual Native American authors

The Gullah-Geechee and the Guale

Q: Does the name "Gullah" come from the Guale tribe, do they have Native American blood? Is the Geeche Gullah language mixed with Native American?

A: No, the Gullah are African-American people, and their creole language is a mix of English with West African languages. Since the Gullah community remained in the same region for generations instead of being broken up and moved from place to place like other enslaved groups, their unique culture survived the hardships of slavery and is still practiced today. The Gullah language (which is still spoken by some families today) is very interesting, but we do not have any resources about it ourselves--here are some good websites about the Gullah people and their language where you can learn more:
Gullah/Geechee Heritage
Gullah Language and Stories
The Gullah Creole
Being Gullah or Geechee
Gullah Storytelling

It is possible that the name "Gullah" could have indirectly come from "Guale," since an area of Georgia was named after the Guale tribe and some Gullah communities live in this region, so they might have adopted the place name as their own. However, it is more likely that the similarity in the names is a coincidence and that the Gullah people took their name from an African source. One of the websites above suggests that the name "Gullah" came from the same source as "Gola" in the West African country of Angola, where many Gullah people originated from. This seems plausible to us! In any case, there is no direct connection between the two communities, whose paths would never have had much chance to cross. The Guale tribe suffered a devastating epidemic in the 1600's century and dispersed into other tribes by the early 1700's, whereas the Gullah people began arriving in the 1700's and gained their freedom from slavery in 1865.

Hope that is interesting, have a great day!

Pronunciation of "Acaxee"

Q: How do you pronounce "Acaxee?"

A: Good question. Unfortunately, the answer is no one knows for sure. The Acaxee language has not been spoken since the 1600's, and the one Jesuit grammar of the language has been lost.

We can make some good guesses though. According to Spanish spelling conventions in Mexico during the 16th and 17th centuries, we would expect a word the Spanish wrote down as "Acaxee" to be pronounced either ah-kah-shay, ah-kah-hay, or ah-kah-jay (with a raspy "j" as in "jalapeño.) The letter "x" was used to represent all three of these sounds at that time.

However, if we look through other Spanish texts, we can see the name was sometimes spelled Acage or Acajee. Since "g" and "j" can both be pronounced as  either "h" or the raspy "j" sound, but never as "sh," we can rule that out.

And finally, it is believed that Acaxee was a Taracahitic language, similar to Mayo or Yaqui. Neither of those languages has any j-as-in-jalapeño sound, but they do both have an h-as-in-hay sound. It is a reasonable guess that Acaxee would have been similar.

Therefore, our best guess is that Acaxee was probably pronounced ah-kah-hay.

Hope that helps, have a good day!

Further reading:
Acaxee language

The letter "8"

Q: In the section:  How is the Abenaki tribe organized?

in the final sentence, it reads "The leader or chief of each Abenaki band is

called sagama or sag8mo in their language."

I’m not sure but "sag8mo" seems like a typo.

Thanks for the info.

A:   Strange as it may seem, no... the "8" was an old linguistic symbol, used by missionaries, to represent a nasal "aw" sound as in "dawn," which is how the middle vowel in that word is actually pronounced.

Since most Native American languages were traditionally unwritten, the spelling systems that have been used for them have sometimes been a little on the unintuitive side.

Hope that is interesting to you. Have a good day!

Further reading:
Abenaki language
Abenaki alphabet
Abenaki tribe   

Gvlieliga

Q: What is the meaning and language of the word gvlieliga?

A:  It's Cherokee. It's a polite comment similar to the English phrase "you're welcome"-- something you say in response to "thank you." Literally it means "I'm glad," or "my pleasure."

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading:
Cherokee language
Cherokee alphabet
Cherokee tribe   

Pennacook Language

Q: Hello. Not sure if I have the right person. But I was wondering how you say grandmother,  Nana in Pennacook.

Thank you

A:  Unfortunately the Pennacook language was never recorded. They may have been speakers of the Abenaki and/or Wampanoag languages, or they may have spoken their own Algonquian dialect of which we have no record. The Abenaki word for "grandmother" is Nokemes (pronounced no-kuh-muss.) Hopefully that is close enough for your purposes.

Have a good day!

Further reading:
Abenaki language
Wampanoag language
Pennacook Indian tribe   

Muskogee Words

Q: Hello I'm learning to speak Muskogee. I'm trying to get back with my culture. I was wondering how you say "I love you" in Muskogee? Mvto!

A:  Hesci! "I love you" is "Ecenokecvyēt os" (pronounced ih-chih-no-kih-chuh-yeet ose.)

Have a good day!

Further reading:
Muskogee language
Creek Indians

Inuit Giants

Q: I read that according to Inuit legends, the first people of Nunavut, who lived there before the Inuit, were giants. Do you know whether there is any truth to this legend-- could prehistoric people like the Dorset culture have been giants, and could this be related to Northwest legends of Sasquatch?

A: Well, archaeology is a bit outside our wheelhouse, so I couldn't tell you with any authority how tall the Dorset people were in real life. However, one thing you should keep in mind is that back then, Inuit men were 5'2"-5'4" in height and Inuit women were almost all shorter than five feet. So "giant" may have been a relative term! Ordinary Plains Indian men would probably have looked like giants to the Inuit ancestors.

With that said, the Tuniit (giants) had many other supernatural qualities in Inuit legends. In some stories they could carry a walrus (which weighs more than a ton) or shapeshift into polar bears. So those would definitely not have been things the real-life Dorset people could have done no matter how tall they were! Either the Tuniit were not the Dorset people at all and were indeed mythological wilderness beings like Sasquatch, or else these legends were historical stories about the Dorset civilization which became changed and embellished over time to include supernatural elements.

Hope that is interesting to you, have a good day!

Further reading:

Inuit people
Sasquatch

Gitche Gumee

Q: I would like to know whether Gitche Gumee is a true Ojibwa name and if the popularly accepted translation is accurate.

A:  Thank you for writing. Yes, that is the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior. In the modern Ojibwe spelling system it is spelled Gichigami (pronounced gih-chih-guh-mih) and it literally means "big lake."

Hope that is what you were looking for. Have a good day!

Further reading:
Ojibwe language
Native American names in Longfellow's Hiawatha
Native American lakes   

Blackfoot word for wolf?

Q: Hi, on your Blackfoot vocabulary page you said the Blackfoot word for "wolf" is Omahkapi'si. But on another site I saw it is Makoyi. Which is correct?

A:  They both are correct. Omahkapi'si is the usual word for a wolf. But Makoyi, or Makoyiwa, is another word for Wolf that is often used in legends and traditional stories, or as an element of Blackfoot names. That is why, for example, the Blackfoot name that was given to Chief Poundmaker, Makoyi-koh-kin, is translated as "Wolf Thin Legs."

Hope that is interesting, have a good day!

Further reading:
Blackfoot language
Blackfoot names
Blackfoot Indian tribe   

O's with nasal hooks

Q: I found the Apache word "Ts'iłsǫǫsé" which I would like to know how to pronounce. Using your online guide, I can figure out the "ts" and the "ł" but I still am a little confused by the "ǫǫ." Am I correct in interpreting that as two accented "o's"?

A:  The marks beneath those vowels are nasal hooks. It means they are pronounced nasally, like the "on" at the end of the French word "bon." The fact that it's a double vowel means that the vowel is held longer than the others.

The accent mark above other vowels, like the é in Ts'iłsǫǫsé, denote high tone.

Hope that is what you were looking for. Have a good day!

Further reading:
Apache language
Apache pronunciation
Apache tribe   

Black Hawk

Q: An old Sauk woman told us that Black Hawk's name was mistranslated into English and should really be  He-Who-Walks-In-The-Shadow-Of-The-Hawk or Shadow Hawk. My  question is: how do I properly pronounce his correct name in his language. Names are important and should be spoken correctly. Any help you can give us to properly pronouncing Chief Black-Hawk's name in his own language will be much appreciated and gratefully received.

A:  Black Hawk's name in Sauk was Mahkateewimešikeehkeehkwa. That is pronounced similar to mah-kah-tay-wih-meh-shih-kay-kay-kwuh. 

I'm not really sure what the lady was trying to say about walking in shadows. There's nothing in this name about walking or shadows, but perhaps something was implied by his name that was only known to people of the older generation. Traditional Algonquian names sometimes had clan implications beyond their literal translations. We can tell you that literally, what this name means is "great black sparrowhawk." Mahkateewi means black, meši means big or great, and keehkeehkwa is the word for a sparrowhawk.

Hope that helps, have a good day!

Further reading:
Sauk language
Sac and Fox people
Hawk mythology