Cutler, Charles L. - T
Tracks That Speak
The Legacy of Native American Words in North American Culture

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780618065103
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 04/03/2002
• Pages: 272

What do the words "saguaro", "parka", "hickory", and "muskrat" have in common? They all come from Native American languages. Few people consider how deeply American English is indebted to Native Americans and how widely the contributions of Native Americans are used in English today. In "Tracks That Speak", Charles L. Cutler offers seventy fascinating studies, each focusing on a particular word borrowed from a Native American language. He tells us about the words themselves and about the things they stood — and stand — for, illuminating not only the roles these things played in traditional Indian societies but also the ones they continue to play in America today. For example, Cutler explains where the word "moccasin" comes from, how "moccasins2 were made and decorated, what advantages they had for their wearers, how and when they were adopted by European settlers, and what incarnations of them can be found in modern clothing catalogs. Such a wealth of historical, ethnographic, and linguistic material on Native American loanwords in English has never before been gathered and presented so clearly, making "Tracks That Speak" as engaging as it is informative.

272 pages, Paperback, First published April 3, 2002

Inhalt

SHELTER

• Igloo
• Wigwam
• Quonset Hut

CLOTHING

• Moccasin
• Mukluk
• Shoepac Pac Boot
• Parka Anorak
• Mackinaw

FOOD FROM PLANTS

• Hominy
• Corn Pone
• Succotash
• Squash
• Saguaro

ADDITIONAL PLANTS

• Pipsissewa
• Tuckahoe

FOOD FROM TREES

• Hickory
• Pecan
• Chinquapin
• Persimmon

OTHER TREES

• Sequoia
• Catalpa
• Tupelo
• Tamarack Hackmatack

FISH AND SEAFOOD

• Abalone
• Quahog
• Ceoduck Yaquina Umpqua
• Chinook Wind
• Sockeye
• Muskellunge Muskie Maskinonge
• Terrapin

CAME ANIMALS

• Moose
• Caribou
• Wapiti
• Pemmican

FURBEARERS

• Muskrat
• Raccoon
• Opossum
• Skunk
• Carcajou Quickmatch
• Woodchuck
• Chipmunk

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

• Eskimo
• Husky
• Malamute
• Appaloosa
• Cayuse

ARTIFACTS

• Tomahawk
• Wampum
• Kayak
• Toboggan

NORTHWEST COAST

• Chinook Salmon
• Potlatch
• HighMuckaMuck MuckaMuck
• Hooch

MISCELLANEOUS

• Sachem Sagamore
• Squam
• Papoose
• Kinnikinnick
• Tammany
• Mugwump
• Bayou
• Muskeg

SPIRIT

• Sasquatch
• Totem
• Kachina
• Inukshuk
• Powwow
• Manitou

• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Urheberrecht

2. Review: Tracks That Speak

Wherever English has been carried by explorers and conquerors, it has picked up words from local languages for things found nowhere else: "kangaroo" in Australia, "hanghi" in New Zealand, "bungalow" in India, "gutta-percha" in Malaya, and so on. North America is no exception, and English has imported many words from its native languages.

The late Charles Culter's book brings together about 75 of them, arranged thematically under 15 headings such as "food", "clothing", and "artifacts". What is unusual about his book is that he goes well beyond etymological explanations to discuss the cultural and technical background of words. He isn't content to explain where the words "parka" and "anorak" come from, to take an example, but describes the differences between them, why and when they were worn and by whom, and even expands a little on their modern descendants. In his essay on the pipissewa plant, he describes its medicinal uses, not only by Native Americans but by colonists and today's Americans too.

He explains how "wampum", from a Massachusetts word, came to mean money to incoming Europeans in the 1630, how "potlatches" got so much out of hand that Canada had to ban them in 1885, and the background to the way that a Hutsnuwu word became the English "hooch".

Mr Culter says in his introduction, "Words are signs, pointing to an elaborate web of cultural practices, each with its own unique tradition, extending into and influencing the present." He has followed the word tracks of the title into some surprising places to produce an intriguing set of vignettes. They help to illuminate relationships between settlers and native peoples in North America from the earliest times on.