First Nations' Words used in English

Okay, I was just looking around when suddenly I saw that, in my discussion list there was a message by JM. Bridgeman, who is Contributing Editor for Canadian History & Culture, had read my article on French Canadian Words decided to drop a line. And in those lines was a brilliant idea, I'd already written about English and French words used in Canada, why not words from the First Nations of Canada (and the States as well I guess). Not all words, just those that are used in English, because, hey, I'm not that good at languages. Anyway, Thanks a lot for the idea. Here's a link to J.M. Bridgeman's site www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/canadian_history_culture

Anyway, here's a look at words of the English language that came from Amerindians and Inuit words. Oh, by the way, I'll only write words that are from Nations that were in Canada or Somewhere near the Canadian Border, at least (that is northern US), so words from the rest of the Americas (South and North) will not talked about here, so no chocolate or cacao...)

Many words come from Inuktitut (language of the Inuit). The Inuit live in Canada's north and now have a Territory of their own (Nunavut) The most known Inuktitut word is igloo which is a house made of blocks of ice. The name of the transportation used by the Inuit is the kayak which resembles a canoe but is covered and uses one paddle with two ends. Another Inuit word is Anorak which is a sort of short coat with a hood. Really warm too. Another language is Algonquian. Algonquian has given us words like Cariboo, the moose like animal. It has given us the name Caucus from the word caucauasu which means counsellor. The little tiny animal that looks like a really tiny squirrel with a less bushy tail, the chipmunk, also derives from Algonquian.

Many animal names derive from Native Canadian words such as the moose, the muskrat, the opossum, the raccoon, skunk and the wapiti. All these words come from different languages in North America. Many words are often used in everyday life such as Tobacco or toboggan. Sometimes we don't realise that they are from Amerindian languages. According to the stereotype given of Indians, a man would walk out of his tepee holding his tomahawk (wearing his special moccasins of course) to prepare for powwow with the other chiefs around the totem pole. Now these are all Amerindian words but aren't of the same family. Tepee is from the plains while most of the others or from the east. Wigwam could replace Tepee. A Wigwam is a house made sort of like a Tepee except it uses birch bark and usually has a rounder shape.

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