A fresh look at the place name Chicago

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2003 by McCafferty, Michael

23 Ibid., 93.

24 Thwaites, ed. Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 67: 294, 68: 202-4, 214, 328; Wayne Temple, Indian Villages of the Illinois Country: Historic Tribes. Revised edition. Vol. 2, part 2 (Springfield: Illinois State Museum, 1966), 12, 35, 41, 47.

25 Thwaites, ed. Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 59: 166, 174.

26 Ibid., 59: 167.

27 Ibid., 65: 52, 54, 100, 102. In this connection, it is also not impossible that La Salle's published ,Checagou. represents a misreading of original *Checagoa, where a handwritten a was thought to be a u. In historic French texts the letters oa commonly stand for the sound -wa(a). Moreover, handwritten u and a are often taken one for the other.

28 Swenson, "Chicagoua/Chicago: The Origin, Meaning, and Etymology of a Place Name," 242.

29 See , where c = s, in Jacob Piatt Dunn s notes ca. 1910, in David J. Costa, Dictionary of the Miami-Illinois Language (unpublished manuscript), 1998.

30 Swenson, Chicagoua/Chicago: The Origin, Meaning, and Etymology of a Place Name, 245.

31 Ibid., 245.

32 Ibid., 245. See , and , in Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary, 214, 233, 217, 250.

33 Ibid., 217.

34 Swenson, "Chicagoua/Chicago: The Origin, Meaning, and Etymology of a manuscript), 1998.

35 Le Boullenger, [French-Illinois dictionary], folios 128, 151.

36 Margry, ed., Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais, 2: 173.

37 Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary, 214, 217, 233, 238. I am grateful to Robert Vezina of l'universite Laval for our botany-related discussions and for identifying waapisihpena. My thanks also to Chuck Fiero for the Ojibwa phonemic spelling and to Carmen Laroche at l'universite de Montreal for our discussions on French terminology.

38 Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary, 237. wiihkap- is the initial meaning "sweet" and "salty."

39 Le Boullenger, [French-Illinois dictionary], folio 151.

40 Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary, 122.

41 I would like to thank Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian Institution for his suggestion about the etymology of and its phonemic spelling. The initial in this term, written , appears to be "sterile" rather than "woman." See and so on, in Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary, 166.

42 Swenson, "Chicagoua/Chicago: The Origin, Meaning, and Etymology of a Place Name," 245, 248.

43 Le Boullenger, [French-Illinois dictionary], folio 5; Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary', 234. The term in question is a kind of diminutive agentive noun in the form wiinihsihsia - wiinihsihsiwa. See David J. Costa, Dictionary of the Miami-Illinois Language, manuscript, 1998. The plant name is related to wiinisita 'one who is smelly.'

44 Le Boullenger, [French-Illinois dictionary], folio 5.

45 Pierre-Philippe Potier, "Chemin, par terre, de S jos aux 8ia ~ de L." and "avril S. Joseph," manuscrits Potier, Gazettes (Archives de la Societe de Jesus Canada francais, St.Jerome, Quebec), 180, 166b.

46 Sarah Jones Tucker, comp. Indian Villages of the Illinois Country. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers, 2(1). Pt. 1 (Springfield 1942), plate XXXVIII.