STATE NAMES — HARRINGTON 375 



Nine of the State names are, or can be conceived of as being, Latin 

 feminine singulars of adjectives, used as nouns : California, Georgia, 

 Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vir- 

 ginia, West Virginia. 



Two of the State names have been revamped with respect to mean- 

 ing: Massachusetts, Michigan. All the State names have been re- 

 vamped with respect to form. 



Erroneous definitions of State names belong in the same class as 

 nicknames, as they usually attribute falsely some flattering or beauti- 

 ful meaning to a name which in reality has another origin. Thus 

 when we assume that Idaho means "gem of the mountains," this 

 erroneous interpretation is practically the same as a flattering nick- 

 name. North Carolina has long been referred to as the "land of the 

 sky," which suggests also the frequent reference to Minnesota as the 

 "land of the sky-blue water," partly as the result of the English word- 

 ing of a popular song. 



ANALYSIS 



Alabama. — According to the researches of Dr. Mary R. Haas, the 

 native form of the name in the Alabama Indian language (Muskho- 

 gean) is Alpaamo, plural Alpaamoha. It was originally the name of 

 a place and tribal town, which was a member of the Creek confederacy. 

 Earliest records show it on the Alabama River, just below the con- 

 fluence of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa. The name is still applied 

 to the tribe, and this application has preserved it from loss. Modern 

 Indians can give no meaning to the name, and it may have been the 

 designation of the place in some other language. At least this theory 

 would explain the name's having no known meaning. In some dialects 

 the name alpaamo appears with initial h : Halpaamo, and Cyrus W. 

 Byington ("A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language," Bur. Amer. 

 Ethnol. Bull. 46, 1946) gives the name with initial h, as does Spots- 

 wood, 1720 (North Carolina Colonial Records, II, p. 383, 1886), who 

 writes "Habbamalas" (bb a mistake for lb) . The Ross map of 1765 

 shows the name as "Alibamons." The i in the second syllable may 

 have been an early pronunciation. 



In 1817 Mississippi Territory was divided, the eastern half becoming 

 Alabama Territory, which in 1819 was made a State. An erroneous 

 belief of wide circulation is that Alabama means "here we rest." 



Alaska. — The name in the Aleutian language of the Eskimoan stock 

 (dialect of Unalaska) of the Alaska Peninsula, which is that part of 

 the mainland of Alaska that juts out toward the eastern end of the 

 Aleutian Island chain, is 'Alaxsxaq. The boundaries of the Alaska 

 Peninsula are indefinite to the east and the Aleutian name has no trans- 

 parent etymology. Alaxsxaq is a normal Aleut noun, and, according 



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