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   

Amahuaca wife-beating sticks?

Q: I was on the museum website and I saw striped sticks of the Amahuaca tribe which were called "wife-beating sticks." What is that about? Why are they beating their wives?

A: I had to ask a friend of a friend to get this answer for you. The Amahuaca are a small tribe and very remote. She says "It was a ritual. The people believed bad things came from dark magic. If a woman was infertile, they would beat her with a sacred stick to drive out the bad magic. They also had special whips that the shaman would whip men in a ritual to make them stronger and drive away dark magic. This is what I hear from older people. Amahuaca still do many of our traditions but not these ones."

Hope that answers you question, have a good day!

Further reading:
Amahuaca language
Amazonian tribes

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