Indian Derivatives in Connecticut Place-Names

Indian Derivatives in Connecticut Place-NamesAuthor(s): Stanley MartinSource: The New England Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Jun., 1939), pp. 364-369Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/360421 .

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364 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

staid a day or two. I learn from him you think of going to the Continent, in the spring, instead of coming to U.S. I regret this, as we should all be glad to see you, 8c none more glad than myself. I had anticipated the pleasure of sitting with you, at the foot of the falls, 8c of hearing a noise, loud enough to drive the din of politics out of my ears, & the hum of the Exchange out of yours.

I pray you to remember me with much kindness to Mrs Bates, and Madam Van de Meyer, & her husband. We never cease to speak of you all, with grateful recollections of your hospitality 8c kindness. Our sessions, I fear, will continue to June, or July. I shall write to you occasionally, I should be more happy to hear from you, if I did not know what labour of writing you have to perform.

I had almost forgotten to say a word about the Boundary ques- tion. I fear some little warmth here, between Mr Fox and Mr Forsythe."3 Pray keep cool on your side. It is of much importance to keep the Times cool, 8c that it should, frequently, repeat the suggestion, of a settlement by compromise-giving, & taking. Have you not the means of seeing, that it takes, and preserves, this tone?14

Yours truly and faithfully DANIEL WEBSTER

Mr Bates, [Endorsed:] Danl. Webster 26 March 1840 Ans. p. Br. Queen

26 Apr. 13 Fox was at the time British minister at Washington, Forsythe still

Secretary of State. 14 See page 361, above.

INDIAN DERIVATIVES IN CONNECTICUT PLACE-NAMES

STANLEY MARTIN

N 1881, J. Hammond Trumbull brought out a glossary of Con. necticut and Rhode Island place-names, the study of which

was a hobby very close to his heart. In his preface he deplored his lack of leisure for preparing a more satisfactory and complete analysis and expressed fear that his results might sometimes not agree with those of the professional philologist or linguistic ex-



MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS 365

pert. An invitation and a plea were issued that an abler hand might develop this subject in thorough fashion and thereby make no small contribution to our stock of New England lore. But no response has been forthcoming. The Indian dialects of the Far West have not gone unnoticed, since that region has been a hap- pier hunting ground for the anthropologist. But so far, linguistic scholars in our Eastern universities seem to be chiefly interested in the Indo-Iranian and Oriental languages.

Trumbull's handbook has long since gone out of print, and unfortunately it is not readily available in our libraries, whither many have repaired in vain for aid in deciphering Indian local names. His work contains many inaccuracies and "hunches," as he was quite willing to admit, and the arrangement of vocabu- lary leaves much to be desired by the curious hunter of a meaning. Therefore, in the following pages the writer has attempted to set down in very brief fashion the significance of the common- est nouns and adjectives which recur with frequency in Connecti- cut Indian place-names. The result will perhaps lend a more picturesque association to names with which the resident or trave- ler in the State comes in daily contact.

The various Indian dialects of New England are branches of the widespread Algonquian language. At least six or seven sep- arate dialects of the Algonquian were indigenous to Connecticut, perhaps the most widely spoken being the Pequot (south and east), the Quinnipiac (south and west), and the Nipmuck (north and east). In the seventeenth century, colonial spelling of English was a law unto itself. In Connecticut, many changes of original English place-names have been witnessed, such as Brentford to Branford, Wydenham to Windham, Kenilworth to Killingworth, and Pontefract to Pomfret. It is not surprising, then, that the native Indian names, strange and queer-sounding to the colo- nists, should strike European ears differently, with wide varia- tions in orthography as a consequence. Identical names turn up under such divergent spellings as Cupheag in the town of Strat- ford, Cupheague on Long Island, Copake in Columbia County, New York, Cape Poge on Marthas Vineyard, and Quebec in Can- ada; or again, Sinawoy in Greenwich, Siwanoy in Westchester County, New York, Sewanee in Tennessee, and S[u]wanee in Florida.




It is significant that but two of the one hundred and sixty-nine towns in Connecticut bear Indian names: Norwalk (fairly well disguised in its spelling) and Naugatuck. Only names selected either from Old England, such as Cheshire, Durham, or Derby, or from the Old Testament, like Canaan, Hebron, or Bethel, were considered fitting and proper for towns. But the number of small- er units such as villages and country districts with Indian names is legion. Also, as earlier in Britain, the Anglo-Saxon conquerors retained the native names for most lakes, streams, mountains, and other topographic features. Names of Indian chiefs, which are perpetuated in Connecticut place-names, appear to be invariably chosen from some topographic descriptive. The following come under a dual category, both personal and topographical:

Cockenoe (Norwalk) Compounce (Southington) Cos Cob (Greenwich) Mamaroneck (Westchester County)' Mianus (Greenwich) Momauguin (East Haven) Montowese (North Haven)

Moosup (Plainfield) Oneco (Sterling) Pomperaug (Woodbury) Ponus (New Canaan) Rowayton (Norwalk) Uncasville (Montville) Wauremaug (New Milford)

The local Indians ordinarily composed their place-names by combining some very common adjective with a noun. Hence a listing of the more frequent prefix or suffix components should prove enlightening in the translation of a large number of names.

I

NOUNS: LAND

-auk, -aug, -ock, -eag = 'land,' 'place'; Norwalk,2 'point of land' Wepawaug (Milford), 'narrow place' Escoheag (Exeter, Rhode Island), 'place of three rivers' Poquannock (Bridgeport), 'cleared land'

1 Most of the New York and Rhode Island Indian names mentioned in this study were in Connecticut territory in early colonial days.

2 Variants of this name appear in Nayaug (Glastonbury), Nyack (Rock- land County, New York), Noyack Bay (Sag Harbor, Long Island), Noank (Groton), Nahant (Massachusetts), and the diminutive form Narragansett (Rhode Island).




Oronoque (Stratford) < Waurenaug, 'good place' Weatogue (Simsbury), 'wigwam place'

waca, weco, wequa = 'end,' 'head' Waccabuc (Westchester County), 'at the end of the lake' Wecopesuck (islet off Fisher's Island, New York),

'little thing at the end' Wequetequock (Stonington) < Wequatucket, 'head of

a stream' manna, minna, mona =-- 'island'

Manhannock (Wethersfield), 'island place' (Compare Manhattan, Manhasset, and Manursing, New York, and Manassas, Virginia.)

Minnie Island (Salem), 'island' Money Island (Branford), 'island' (Compare Montauk,

Long Island, Monomoy, Massachusetts, and Monhegan, Maine

-ompsk, -pisk, -pist = 'rock' Higganum (Haddam) < Tomheg'nompsk, 'at the axe rock' Pistapaug (Wallingford), 'rocky pond'

II

NOUNs: WATER

nip = 'water' Nipmuck (Union), 'fishing water' Nippowin (Greenwich), 'fine water'

-paug, -pauk, -bog, -buck = 'pond,' 'lake' Pocotopaug (East Hampton), 'divided pond' Quaboag (Woodstock) < Wequabog, 'end of the pond' Pequabuck (Bristol), 'open pond'

sepu, sippi = 'long river' Sepostamesuck (Montville), 'outlet of a little long river'

(Compare Mississippi, and Sippiwissett, Massachusetts.) -tuck, -taug, -tic = 'stream,' 'river'

Naugatuck, 'one stream' Saugatuck (Westport), 'outlet of a stream' Pootatuck (Newtown), 'stream with falls in it' Quonocontaug (Charlestown, Rhode Island), 'long water' Yantic (Norwich), 'extending to a river' Pawtuxet (Scituate, Rhode Island), 'at the little falls'

(Compare Pawtucket, 'at the falls.') sauk, suck = 'outlet'

Suckiaug (Hartford), 'outlet place' (Compare Saco and Saga- dahoc, Maine, Saugus, Massachusetts, Saginaw, Michi- gan, and Saguenay, Qu6bec.)




-amaug, -amuck, -amond = 'fishing place' Wauremaug (Warren), 'good fishing-place' Armonk (Westchester County), 'fishing-place' Congamond (Granby), 'long fishing-place'

III

ADJECTIVES

missi, massa, mash, matta = 'big,' 'great' Mystic (Stonington), 'wide river' Meshomasic (Portland), < Massawamsog, 'great declivity'

(Compare 'Massachusetts.') Mashamoquet (Pomfret), 'at a great fishing-place' Mattabesett (Middletown), 'large brook'

oxo, ogkosse = 'small' Oxoboxo (Montville) < Oxopaugsuck, 'small pond outlet' Oxecoset (Stonington) < Oxocohasset, 'place of small pine

trees' Quassapaug (Middlebury) < Ogkossepaug, 'small pond'

quinni, quon, conn = 'long' Quinnipiac (New Haven), 'long water country' Quonnipaug (Guilford), 'long pond' Connecticut, 'upon the long river'

willi, winni = 'good' Willimantic (Windham), 'good look-out' Winnipauk (Norwalk), 'fine pond'

patta = 'round' Pattaquonk (Saybrook), 'round place'

wepo, wopo = 'narrow' Wopowog (East Haddam), 'narrow place (ford)'

nashaw, shaw = 'between' Nashaway (Killingly), 'place between' Shetucket (Windham), 'between the rivers'

uncoa, unqua = 'beyond' Unquowa (Fairfield), 'beyond [the Pequonnoc]'

pyqua, paqua, pawca = 'open,' 'cleared' Pyquag (Wethersfield), 'open place' Chappaqua (Westchester County), 'open clearing' Pawcatuck (Stonington), 'open estuary'

It is interesting to compare the spellings of Connecticut names with the corresponding forms in other states where the meaning is identical and the pronunciation nearly so. Such pairs are:

Quinnipiac (New Haven): Kennebec (Maine) Pachaug (Voluntown): Patchogue (Long Island)




Mohegan (Groton): Mohican (New York) Winnipauk (Norwalk): Winnebago (Wisconsin) Nashaway (Killingly): Nashua (New Hampshire) Kitchawan (Westchester County) Quinnitchuan > Quinze

Chiens (Quebec) Catoonah (Ridgefield): Katonah (New York) Shetucket (Norwich): Setauket (Long Island) Mattabesett (Middletown): Mattapoisett (Massachusetts) Weebatuck (Sherman): Weybosset (Rhode Island) Weekapaug (Westerly, Rhode Island): Waccabuc (New

York) Schaghticoke (Kent): Piscataqua (Maine) Taconic (Salisbury) and Tokeneke (Darien): Taghkanic

(Columbia County, New York), and Taughannock (Tompkins County, New York)

Forms that have been telescoped are:

Watunkshausepo > Tunxisepo > Tunxis (Hartland) Saukunkamaug > Skunkamuck (Coventry) Tomheg'nompsk > Higganum (Haddam) Ogkossepaugsuck > Oxoboxo > Oxyboxy (Montville) Pistapaug > Paug (Durham) Mashenupsuck > Shenipsit > Snipsic (Tolland) Cassacubque > Cos Cob (Greenwich) Pattaquottuck > Quaddic (Thompson) Mashepaug > Shepaug (Roxbury)

No signs of apocopation, however, have appeared in

Lake Wononscopomuc (Salisbury) Lake Chaubunagungamaug (bordering Thompson)

and the newly coined

Naromiyocknowhusunkatankshunk Brook (Sherman).



Indian Derivatives in Connecticut Place-Names

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