When Fluff and I drove into Presque Isle last week and saw the signboard hanging outside the above building I thought that Pat Robertson had opened a branch office of his 700 Club way up here in Maine's "Back Forties "................ and then I thought of the other meaning of the verb " redeem ". Yes, folks ... even empty bottles are worthy of redemption in the States !!
Greetings from Raccoon Hollow............ see you all in Maine !
America cetainly has talent...... less though maybe in choosing those who judge the talented ones !!
By way of a follow - up to what I wrote two days ago I would like to take you along with me as I do a wee bit of linguistic "sleuthing "..... something you won't find in the history or the geography books.
The bottom map above shows the territorial extension of the Algonkian linguistic family offfset in RED. Some 25 to 30 separate languages were / still are spoken within its boundaries...... Micmac , Maliseet , Montagnais ( Innu ) , Atikamekw , Cree , Abenaki , Illinois , Ojibway , Algonquin , Penobscot , Mohican , Natick , Shawnee , Sauk and Fox , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Blackfoot , Menominee , Powahatan , Miami , Delaware , Naskapi , Passamaquoddy etc . I was privileged to teach one of these tongues for roughly 33 years as part of my workload.... the fun part , at Université Laval here In QC where both non - native and native students received university credits for their endeavours. Needless to say , the native folks were overjoyed.
The top map shows a slice of the Trans - Canada Highway between my old hometown of Saint John , New Brunswick and the province of Québec where we now reside. The northeastern corner of the USA.... State of Maine more precisely .... is presented on the left in grey while New Brunswick to the right is somewhat pinkish in colour. Please enlarge map for better visioning.
When driving home northbound we get to quaint town on the banks of the Saint John River named Perth - Andover with the well - known Maliseet village on its outskirts almost. It is a crossroads where we may turn either west and end up in Fort Fairfield / Presque Isle , Maine ( USA ) , cut east along Highway 190 to Plaster Rock or keep on heading north towards Aroostook and Limestone , both in New Brunswick ... of course ! Once in Limestone , New Brunswick you will notice that a bit further north on the Maine side of the border there is another Limestone!! Now back to Plaster Rock ..... and more especally to the wee village just south of it which bears a Maliseet placename , Wapiske. To make a long story shorter and less complicated.......... limestone is used to make plaster and the Maliseet word means simply "white rock ". In the language I taught the corresponding term is "wapiskaw ". I wonder whether the natives stole our placenames .... limestone and plaster rock.....then translated them into Maliseet ? Just kidding !!
Driving around Lake Michigan some time back I had a fieldday...... Kenosha , Milwaukee , Michigan., Chicago .... illinois ( eelinwa ) simply means Indian , native human being with Indiana nextdoor ??? .... and South Bend , Indiana ( Notre Dame ) with it almost suburb , Mishawaka which really means Big Bend !! These two BENDS are referring to the huge "bend "or "curve " of Lake Michigan .... or two bends along the Saint Joe River which flows through both cities ??? And many more fun - filled questions !
.P.S. Fluff and I are leaving for Limestone and Presque Isle , Maine this coming Sunday for about four days.
When I asked Fluff to kindly dipnet my old blogs in Yahoo 360 and repatriate them to Multiply I did not realize it would flood all your inboxes. Sorry about that , my friends ! However , it gave my buddy , Jim ( X- Chips ) a second run through the old stuff and I wish to thank him for his generosity and great courage since he commented and "lolled "his way through the first ten !
Prelude : The above map gives a "very general yet unprecise " picture of the territorial extensions of North American aboriginal language families..... blue ( Siouan languages ) , Grey ( Algonkian languages ) , Red ( Iroquoian languages ) , Light green ( Uto - Aztecan languages ) etc.I have a better one from the Smithsonian that covers a wall..... far too big and complex to post here.
At the moment of first contacts some 500 native languages were being spoken throughout North America and these tongues can be regrouped into roughly 50 - 55 linguistic families showing ( at least for the present moment ) NO LINGUISTICALLY GENETIC RELATIONSHIP among them.....each family represented by at least one language ( an isolate such as Zuni , Karankawa , Kootenay ) or by as many as 25 or more sister languages ..... each decended from a common ancestor or proto - language.....a few of which have been recorded historically in written form such as Latin which gave birth to French , Italian , Spanish , Italian , Roumanian and Romanch...... whereas most , such as Proto - Celtique which mothered Irish and Scottish Gaelic , Cornish , Welsh , Breton , etc , was never attested to in writing. I might add that both Central and South America present an even more puzzling enigma with some 70 - 75 linguistic families . In fact more than half of all known languages .......roughly 6000 worldwide........were once spoken in our own Western Hemisphere !! Why so many of homo sapiens' greatest masterpieces ( or the fruit of God's creation as be your personal belief ) have washed up on the foggy shores of oblivion since 1492 I shall leave to your own private surmise , reflexions and readings. However , one tidbit worthy of thought might conjure up opinions as to whether mankind's origins were mono- or plurilinguistic ????? The Tower of Babel would be an easy answer for many. The science of linguistics is not yet certain................... although it does affirm with certitude that , given the time lapse necessary for language change ( sounds and structures of organized speech ) ,to evolve , it would take MUCH MORE TIME than 6000 years for ONE language to beget and differentiate into the colossal diversity we observe on our planet today !
Foreplay with supper........
Swedish Bombshell with begonia backup......
Québec triangular garden......
Neighbour drops by for midday snack
Ever watchful eyes of McDuff
Long live the home of the free et la terre de nos aïeux !!
Snookums just showed up for late supper so I thought I would let you kind folks in on just how I know she's a SHE without grabbing her by the hind legs and lifting her up for a spot check.... and take risk of getting rabies too..... You will notice that Snookums is wearing her sporty new white bobby socks
