Particularly
for an archaeologist, it can be a lot of fun to know a linguist. My friend
Michael McCafferty studies, among other things, the language of the Miami and
the Illinois, which was the native tongue of the region from about 1600 to
about 1750. Population decline amongst the Illinois (and the increase in French
settlers) favored French as the local language by the mid-1700s. This was
exchanged for English after the arrival of significant numbers of American
settlers after 1800.
Michael
provides me occasional insights into the language of the Illinois, which help
interpret what we find in the ground, or which simply breathe a little life
into the physical remains of the past. Below are a few things he has shared
with me. (The Illinois words have been reproduced here in the way the French
missionaries wrote the language.)
In Illinois: cacar8gana
In French: os de Cerf pour
faire des pierres a fl.
In English: deer bones for
making arrow stones
In Illinois: irenakic8a
In French: pot de terre fait
par les sauvages
In English: earthen pot made
by the wild ones
In Illinois: nitchingasichima
achiski8akic8a
In French: je presente au
feu la gueule du pot de terre pr le seicher
In English: I introduce the
neck of the earthen pot to the fire to dry it
In Illinois: 8apakic8nessa ("little white pot")
In French: de fayance
In English: (French) faience
In Illinois: atehiminanghigi
areni tchipacamina8e nipinirakinchi
In French: avec des fraise
on fait une eau qui est coe une Espece de vin
In English: with
strawberries they make a water which is like a kind of wine
In Illinois: nanta8a8ia
am8i (literally ‘timber rattlesnake shit’)
In French: charbon de terre
In English: coal
