Home / Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. / Passage

Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names

Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. 310 words

of the ancient forms, however, which you give from the old Dutch authorities, seems to put us at once on the right track. This form is Ochsechrage. The 'digraph' ch in this word evidently represents the hard guttural aspirate, common to both the Dutch and the German languages. This aspirate is of frequent occurrence in the Iroquois dialects, but it is not a radical element. As I have elsewhere said, it appears and disappears as capriciously as the common h in the speech of the south of England. In etymologies it may always be disregarded. Omitting it, we have the well-known word Oserage -- in modern Iroquois orthography Oserake, meaning 'At the beaverdam.' It is derived from osera, 'beaver-dam,' with the locative particle ge or ke affixed. "In Iroquois r and / are interchangeable, and .y frequently sounds like sh. Thus we can understand how in Cartier's orthography Oserake (pronounced witih an aspirate) became Hochelaga, the •well-known aboriginal name of what is now Montreal. That this name meant simply 'At the beaver-dam' is not questioned. It is rather curious, though not surprising, that two such noted Indian names as Saratoga and Hochelaga should have the same origin. In Ochseratongue the name is lengthened by an addition which is so evidently corrupted that I hesitate to explain it. I may say, however, that I suspect it to be a 'verbalized' form. It may possibly be derived from the verb atona, 'to become' (in its perfect tense atonk), added to osera, in which case the word would mean, 'where a beaver-dam has been forming,' or, as we should express it in English, 'where the beavers have been making a dam.' "With regard to the Mahican name Amissohaendiek or Amissohaendick (whichever it is) I cannot say much, my knowledge of the Algonquin dialects not being sufficient to warrant me in venturing on et\Tnologies.