82 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Pokiok. 

 Location and Application. — The name of five places in New Brunswick, all 

 within the basin of the River Saint John, outside of which the word appears to be 

 unknown. In all cases it is pronounced POK'- E OK, — the POK as in POKE and ac- 

 cented, the E as in HE, and the OK as in ROCK. I know personally all five places. 



A. The Pokiok River between Frcdericton and Woodstock. 



This small river flows into the Saint John, on its western side, though coming 

 from the southeast, somewhat more than half way from Frcdericton up to Wood- 

 stock. It is noted locally for the remarkable vertical-walled narrow gorge and 

 high waterfall just at its junction with the Saint John. 



History of the Word. — It makes its first appearance upon the earliest known 

 map of the upper Saint John waters made from survey, — that of 1762 by Captain 

 Peach, — in the form BOGWIACK {Ms. in the Canadian Archives). It appears 

 next on a map of the river by Charles Morris, in 1784, in the form PUKUYAUT 

 (Ms. in the Crown Land Office at Frcdericton) ; on a Ms. Plan of the next year it is 

 POQUIOUK {Ms. in the same office) ; and on a fine map of the river made by C. 

 Campbell in 1784-1785 it is PEKUYAUK {New Brunswick Magazine, II, 1899 

 233, corrected copy). Other maps or reports of this time have POCWACK 

 POCQUIOCK, POQUIOUK, POQUEOUK, POQUACOUTE (evidently a misprint), 

 and POQUEHOUK, which latter is misprinted on Bonnor's fine map of New Bruns- 

 wick, of 1820 as POQUEBOUK. The present form POKIOK first appeared on Lock- 

 wood's large and excellent map of New Brunswick of 1826 ; it was followed on Baillie's 

 map of 1832, and, with occasional small variants to POKIOCK and returns to the older 

 form on general maps, has been followed by all New Brunswick maps do-wn to the pre- 

 sent day, making it the standard form of the name. And this status has received official 

 confirmation through the adoption of this form by the Geographic Board of Canada. 



Analysis of the Word. — The Maliseet Indians now living along the Saint 

 John River all recognize the word as belonging to their language, and give its form 

 without hesitation as PO— KEE'— OK, in which form I have received it from several 

 of them, as my notes record. It is given by M. Chamberlain as PO'-KI-HAK, a 

 form evidently identical with mine, except for the accent, which may be displaced 

 accidentally in Chamberlain's word {Maliseet Vocabulary, 60). Comparing, now, 

 these modern Indian forms with those in the early documents above recorded, it 

 is plain that they are identical except for two minor points; — first, the early use of 

 such spellings as BOG, PUK, PEK show clearly that the first vowel sound was 

 originally short, not long as now sounded, and for this there is other evidence later 

 given; second, the earlier forms possess after the K a W sound missing from the 

 modern forms, showing that it was present in the aboriginal form. As the records 

 above-cited were made independently of one another, and the words could only 

 have been taken directly from the Indians, there can seem to be no question that 

 the aboriginal form of the name contained the short O and the W sound, wherefore 

 it must have been something very closely like POK-WEE'-OK, which we may 

 accept as the nearest our alphabet will render the aboriginal word. As to why 

 the modern Indians have partially altered their pronunciation of the original form, 

 that, I think, is fairly obvious; it is under the influence of their long and close 

 association with the English residents of the Saint John, who have familiarized 

 ami shortened the sounds in conformity wth the genius of their speech, for to us 

 POK'-EE-OK is easier to sound and of more familiar aspect than POK-WEE'-OK. 

 We have ample other examples of this same influence of European influence upon 

 Indian pronunciation, as will appear later in this series, in Becaguimec and other words. 



