List of Massachusetts placenames of Native American origin

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The following list includes settlements, geographic features, and political subdivisions of Massachusetts whose names are derived from Native American languages.

Contents

Listings

State

Counties

Settlements

  • Acoaxet: (Narragansett) "at the fishing promontory" or "place of small pines"
  • Agawam: (Nipmuck or Pennacook) "low land" (with water) or "place to unload canoes" (possible portage spot)
  • Annisquam (and river)
  • Assinippi: (Wampanoag) "rocks in water"
  • Assonet River (also Cedar Swamp and village): (Narragansett) "at the rock" – the rock in question being Dighton Rock
  • Cataumet: (Wampanoag) "at the ocean" or "landing place"
  • Chicopee (also falls, and river): (Nipmuck) "violent water"
  • Cochituate: (Natick) "place of swift water"
  • Cohasset: (Natick) "long rocky place"
  • Cotuit: (Wampanoag) "long planting field"
  • Cummaquid: (Wampanoag) "harbor"
  • Hockanum: (Podunk) "hook"
  • Humarock: (Wampanoag) "shell place" or "rock carving"
  • Hyannis: (Wampanoag) name of a 17th-century chief, "Iyanogh's"
  • Jamaica Plain (and pond): (Natick) "beaver"
  • Manomet (and point): (Wampanoag) "portage place"
  • Mashpee: (Wampamoag) "place near great cove"
  • Mattapan: (Natick) "resting place" or "end of portage"
  • Mattapoisett: (Wampanoag) "resting place" or "edge of cove"
  • Merrimac: (Pennacook) "deep place"
  • Minnechaug: (Algonquian) "Land of Berries"
  • Nabnasset: (Nipmuck)
  • Nahant: (Natick) "the point" or "almost an island"
  • Natick: tribe; "the place I seek" or "home," "place," "clearing"
  • Nonquitt: (Narragansett) "dry or landing place"
  • Pocasset: (Natick) "where the stream widens"
  • Pontoosuc: (Mahican or Nipmuck) "falls on the brook"
  • Quissett: (Nipmuck) "at the place of small pines"
  • Sagamore: (Wampanoag) "chief"
  • Santuit: (Wampanoag) "cool water place"
  • Saugus: (Natick) "outlet"
  • Scituate: (Wampanoag) "at the cold spring or brook"
  • Seekonk: (Narragansett) "wild black goose" or (Wampanoag) "mouth of stream" or "wild goose"
  • Siasconset: (Narragansett) "at the place of many/great bones" (whales?)
  • Swampscott: (Natick) "place of red rocks"
  • Waquoit: (Wampanoag) "at the end"
  • Wianno
  • Woronoco: (Nipmuck) "winding about"

Bodies of water

Other

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dug Pond</span>

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Quinsigamond is a place in Massachusetts.

The Massachusett dialects, as well as all the Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA) languages, could be dialects of a common SNEA language just as Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible languages that essentially exist in a dialect continuum and three national standards. With the exception of Massachusett, which was adopted as the lingua franca of Christian Indian proselytes and survives in hundreds of manuscripts written by native speakers as well as several extensive missionary works and translations, most of the other SNEA languages are only known from fragmentary evidence, such as place names. Quinnipiac (Quiripey) is only attested in a rough translation of the Lord's Prayer and a bilingual catechism by the English missionary Abraham Pierson in 1658. Coweset is only attested in a handful of lexical items that bear clear dialectal variation after thorough linguistic review of Roger Williams' A Key into the Language of America and place names, but most of the languages are only known from local place names and passing mention of the Native peoples in local historical documents.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Salwen, Bert, 1978. Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Early Period. In "Northeast", ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of "Handbook of North American Indians", ed. William C. Sturtevant, pp. 160–176. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Quoted in: Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 401
  2. "Nissitissit River Land Trust". nissitissitriver.org. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  3. Nashua River Wild & Scenic Study Committee (November 29, 2017). "DRAFT STEWARDSHIP PLAN" (PDF).

Sources