Whenever I travel the highways , byways or pathways of our planet , whether at home or abroad , my mind is constantly busy absorbing and analyzing data from what I see , hear , feel , etc around me .............. measuring it against what I know already or storing it in the vault for future reference. Since early childhood I have always been an avid student and lover of people(s) , their histories and cultures, their geography , their languages and cultures..... and especially the way they think and name their environments. It is no wonder then that I chose a career in anthropological linguistics. Anything culturally , religiously or topographically relevant to the people will be reflected in the names it allots to its landscapes and waterways. Thus , on a recent trip to the northeasternmost corner of " those good ole U. S. of As"...... tucked neatly in between the two Canadian provinces of Québec and New Brunswick......Fluff and I visited with the decendants of Swedish colonies established there back in 1871 and which to this day mirror nostalgically the "old country ".... Stockholm , New Sweden , Jämtland and Westmanland.
Two weeks ago we set out again for the State of Maine ..... crossing " la Beauce " , recalling the rolling countryside just south of Paris ( France ) on the road to Bordeaux...... with its numerous quaint villages most of which bear the names of Catholic Saints : Sainte Marie , Saint Isidore , Saint Bernard , Saint Georges , Saint Odilon , Saint Gédéon , Saint Côme , etc Then across the U. S. border at Jackman and , following the Kennebec River through the dense Maine forest for roughly an hour , we finally come to an agglomeration of some 25 houses with one huge elementary school. Moscow , Maine !! From here its on down highway 201 to Skowhegan where we get a choice......either turn left towards Bangor and Calais ( reverberations of well-known places in France ) or keep right and head for Interstate 95 South.... Miami here I come !! Barely 15 minutes southbound on the Maine Turnpike ( one slice of 95 )and the first exit hints at the British Isles posting Bristol , Bath , Belfast and Plymouth whereas the next one echoes Central Europe with Vienna and Belgrade !! One wintry night some 40 years ago I was taking a shortcut back to Québec through Maine during an honest-to-God white-out blizzard . The I 95 was blocked off so I started taking the backroads as I inched my way homewards through the ever-deepening snow ....... the bumper of my old Volks was pushing snow when I came to a dimly lit crossroads. With visibility almost nil I got out of the car to better read the signposts . I had four options..... go straight ahead to China , turn left and go to South China , bear right to North China or head back to Bangor !! With all due respect to my friend , Chun ( from the real China ) I turned back that night to wait the storm out !!
And now comes the moment in my blog where I either pull the plug and jump ship while the readers' interest may still be afloat.............. or bring this post to a slow-motion conclusion headlining a couple of examples drawn from a domaine so dear and close to my heart.......... North American native toponymy or placenaming. Let's face it !! They got here some 15 to 20 thousand years before we did and naturally named the elements of their environments as they settled or wandered throughout this vast territory. It is a fact that over one half of all the States , Provinces and Territories of both Canada and the U.S. bear names drafted / stolen / borrowed from aboriginal languages as well as hundreds of thousands of other officially designated terms for our rivers , lakes , streams , hills and mountains , bays , coves , cities , towns and villages , etc During my career I was privileged to teach the Innu language as part of my yearly workload..... and this over 31 years. Now this language is one of roughly 40 languages which make up the Algonquian language family , the most widespread nartive linguistic stock in North America..... stretching from Newfoundland southwards to Virginia ..... westward to the Mid-West....... around the Great Lakes..... and from Newfoundland stretching westwards to the Canadian Rockies.
And now is the point where I could expatiate........ dissecting and analyzing native placenames that ornate our territories such as Kennebec , Kennebunk / Kennebunkport or Bush Compound..... or maybe Chicago , Illinois , Milawaukee , Kenosha , Michigan , Massachusetts , Connecticut ,etc...... However , I think I'll take a raincheck on this and wait see how this post pans out. There is one prediction I'll make though just for the fun of it. I have driven through the southern part of Rhode Island but never have I laid eyes on nor visited Pawtucket , one of the State's important cities. Nevertheless , I am sure that somewhere within the city limits of Pawtucket there are sizeable waterfalls. The Innu word for waterfalls is "pawhtukw "or at the falls " pawhtukut". Maybe some of you are familiar with this New England town/city ?
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