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NATIVE AMERICAN BORROWINGS
Borrowings from Native American languages entered English mostly
via Spanish and, sincethen, they have been exported to many of the
other languages. Most Native American borrowings are used
in modern English and other languages as terms that depict
notions from local flora and fauna, or todescribe items of Native
American life and culture.The initial contact of English settlers
in North America was with tribes who used the languages of
the Algonquian language family . As a result, many words from
these languages were the first NativeAmerican borrowings in
English. In everyday use of English , we encounter many
Algonquianborrowings , some of which are:Place names (Canadian
provinces and U.S. states) :Mississippi -originally mihcisiipiiwi
"(great river)" - referring to the Mississippi River;Michigan -
originally meehcakamiwi "(great sea)" - referring to the Lake
Michigan;Wisconsin - original meaning of the word was "(grassy
place)";Missouri - (town of the large canoes);Oregon - beautiful
water;Massachusetts - ("place near the big little hills");Wyoming -
("place of the big flats");Common names for flora and fauna:skunk -
"ekkwa ", from ek-, "to urinate", and -kw, "fox";chipmunk -
originally jidmoonh, meaning ("red squirrel");squash - type of
pumpkin;caribou - ("snow-shoveler") - A type of reindeer;cisco
(fish) - ("siscowet - greasy-bodied [fish]");pokeweed - type of
berries poisionus to mammals, compound of pocan - blood and
weed;opossum - // ("white dog-like animal");Items of native
culture:toboggan - "topaqan" - sled pung - "tom-pung" - a low
box-like sleigh designed for one horse;tomahawk - (*temahkani, from
*temah-, "to cut" + *-kan, "instrument for" ) - now amissile;totem
- "odoodem" ("his totem") - a representation of a person or animal
which is of great spiritual value - atotem of an ancestor ;moccasin
- shoewigwam -" wkiwHmi" - ("their house ") - native American
dwelling;
Nahuatl , a group of related languages and dialects of the
Aztecan branch - Uto-Aztecanlanguage family , indigenous to central
Mexico where more than 1.5 million speak it. Place names :Guatemala
- Central American country;Mexico - The Aztec war god, North
American country;Common names for flora and fauna:tomato -
"tomatl";avocado - "ahuacatl" meaning testicle, one of many food
words from Nahuatl;cacao - cacahuatl, fruit/nut;peyote - type of
cactus;cacao - cacahuatl, fruit/nut;coyote type of prairie
dog;ocelot species of cat inhabitting Central
America;Other:chocolate xocoltl chocolate drink, perhaps literally
- bitter wate r;chili spicy food relish;guacamole spicy avocado
paste from Central America;mezcal a Mexican alcoholic drink made
from agave plant; refers to all agave based liquors that are
not
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tequila.shack from "xacatli" - wooden hut;
Quechua is a Native American language of South America; it was
the language of the IncaEmpire , today spoken in various dialects
by some 10 million people throughout South America. It is themost
widely spoken of all the languages of the Indigenous peoples of the
Americas. It has the status of anofficial language in both Peru and
Bolivia , along with Spanish and Aymara. Similar to Nahuatl
borrowings, a number of Quechua loanwords have entered English
through Spanish :Common names for flora and fauna:coca - from kuka,
via Spanish, best known for the drug cocaine that is extracted from
it;condor - from kuntur, via Spanish cndor;lima type of been
(butter bean);llama animal from camelidae family;puma cougar;vicuna
- Andean deer-like relative of the llama.Other:Tupac Shakur - the
popular rapper - Shining Serpent or Royal Serpent in Quechua;guano
- collected droppings of seabirds, bats, and seals;jerky - dried
meat;pampa - from pampa, "flat", fertile South American
lowlands;
soroche - from sorojchi, ("mountain sickness")Inuit is an
Eskimo-Aleut language spoken in Siberia and Alaska. It is the
language of theEskimos:anorak - a warm coat. Used in UK for as
slang for an obsessive person;igloo - house made from ice and
snow;kayak - "qajaq" - boat
Carib language spoken in northern South America and the
Caribbean:barbecue - wooden frame on posts - grilling food over a
fire, originally on a wooden frame;cannibal - "person, Indian" -
spanish version of a Caribbean tribe;canoe - a type of boat;maize -
mahis, corn plant;hurricane - "hurakn"- tropical cyclone ;Jamaica -
("well watered") - Caribbean island;
Words from Tupi-Guaran languages:jaguar - from Tup agara ;cougar
- ultimately corrupted from Guaran guau ara;petunia - violet or
purple tropical plant;piranha - ("scissors") , voracious South
American fish;tapioca - ("squeeze out dregs"), grains from Cassava
plant used for sweets;tapir - South American mammal with
proboscis.
Apart from these three language families, we can find borrowings
from other Native Americanlanguages :Malamute - from Inupiaq
malimiut, dog breed;Caiman - from a Ta-Maipurean language, "water
spirit", aligator;Iguana - from an Arawakan language;Sequoia - from
a Cherokee personal name;Tobacco - from an Arawakan (probably
Taino) language, possibly combined with Spanish tobaco,meaning
medicinal herbs;poncho - a cloak from South America;
In modern English, words borrowed from Native American languages
are mostly used as termswhich denote certain notions unique for
territories of Americas, because terms for this notions did not
existin English.
REFERENCES:Crystal, D (1995) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the
English Language.
CUP,Cambridgehttp://www.krysstal.comhttp://www.askoxford.com/globalenglish/borrowings/?view=uk
