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!