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   

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