ABORIGINAL PLACE NAMES OF NEW YORK 9 



COMPOSITION OF LOCAL NAMES 



All aboriginal names in New York are either Algonquin or 

 Iroquois. The broad distinction is that while labials abound in the 

 former they are not used in the latter. The Algonquin adjective 

 commonly precedes the noun in composition, while in the Iroquois 

 the reverse is the rule. 



Territorially Algonquin names prevail in the southeast and north- 

 east parts of the State, and are occasional along the Pennsylvania 

 line. Iroquois names occupy the western and central parts of New 

 York, with a few examples south of Albany. North and northwest 

 of that city both families are well represented. There are a few 

 intrusive names. 



Among all the papers on Algonquin place names, of a general 

 character, no one is better than that by the late J. Hammond Trum- 

 bull, entitled " The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, 

 illustrated from the Algonkin Languages," and published in the 

 Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, volume 2. A 

 brief summary of this excellent paper will be given, but its 50 pages 

 will well repay close study and they cover a large field. He was 

 long the leading authority on these languages and published much 

 concerning them. 



In them he included three classes of local names, th first being 

 formed by two elements, adjectival and substantial, with or with- 

 out a suffix denoting location. The second has single elements ; the 

 substantive with locative suffix, and these two classes contain nine 

 tenths of local Algonquin names. Most others are from verbs, as 

 participial or verbal nouns, denoting the place where the act was 

 performed. In translating, the earliest record form should be found 

 and variations noted. There follow other excellent rules. 



Land or country is ohke in the Massachusetts dialect, auke in 

 Narragansett, hacki in Delaware, alike in Chippewa, etc. These 

 terminals will be recognized in many words. Wompan refers to 

 the east and is often applied to a people or country east of the 

 speaker. Thus the Wappingers had their name from living east 

 of the Hudson. Shazvan referred to the south, and thus we have 

 the Shawnees or south people. Such words are frequent in 

 compounds. 



