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Many animals (skunk, opossum for example), many foods (chocolate, squash for example), barbecue, poncho, hurricane, totem, teepee, toboggan. The list goes on, t
by Loughla 6y ago
Many animals (skunk, opossum for example), many foods (chocolate, squash for example), barbecue, poncho, hurricane, totem, teepee, toboggan. The list goes on, those are just the ones I remember from sophomore linguistics courses about 15 years ago.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThese are drawn from a few separate categories that differ in interesting ways. Words like teepee and squaw don't really qualify as loans in my eyes. They're native words, sure, but they are used exclusively in talking about the natives. Chocolate and barbecue ultimately trace back to indigenous words, but they didn't come from indigenous languages. They came from Spanish. (Compare "adobe", the material common in the American Southwest -- there is a theory that this word can be traced back to Ancient Egyptian. Is it a loan from Ancient Egyptian? No.) Animal terms are similar to the first category, but feel more like they're genuinely a part of the language. Skunks are called skunks in every context; tents are usually called tents, not teepees.
- WalterBright 6y agoSome are "loan-translations" like war paint, peace pipe, great white father, paleface, firewater. Mario Pei in "The Story of the English Language" estimates that 1700 English words have an American Indian origin.