Indian borrowings in english

      Borrowings among Indian languages may have been more numerous than yet reported, judging from the wide and rapid diffusion that loans from Spanish and Portuguese had through the central part of South America. Borrowings between Quechua and Aymara have occurred in great number, but the direction of borrowing is difficult to determine. Many Indian languages in the Andes and the eastern foothills have borrowed from Quechua either directly or through Spanish. In Island Carib (an Arawakan language), borrowings from Carib (a Cariban language) have formed a special part of the vocabulary, properly used only by men; these words were adopted after the Island Carib speakers were subjugated by Caribs.¹⁰

      In turn, some Indian languages have been a source of borrowing into European languages. Taino (Arawakan), the first language with which Spaniards had contact, furnished the most widespread borrowings, including “canoe,” “cacique,” “maize,” and “tobacco,” among many others. No other South American Indian language has furnished such widespread and common words, although Quechua has contributed some specialized items such as “condor,” “pampa,” “vicuña.” The larger number of Arawakan borrowings results from these languages having been predominant in the Antilles, a region where Dutch, French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish were present for a long time. Cariban languages, the other important group in that region, do not seem to have furnished many words, but “cannibal” is a semantically and phonetically modified form of the self-designation of the Caribs. The influence of some Indian languages on regional varieties of Spanish and Portuguese has been paramount. Thus Tupí accounts for most Indian words in Brazilian Portuguese, Guaraní in the Spanish of Paraguay and northeast Argentina; and Quechua words are abundant in Spanish from Colombia to Chile and Argentina. In addition, Quechuan and Tupí-Guaraní languages account for most place-names in South America.

      No detailed studies are available concerning the relationship of the vocabularies of Indian languages to the culture. Certain areas of vocabulary that are particularly elaborated in a given language may reflect a special focus in the culture, as for example the detailed botanical vocabularies for plants of medical or dietary importance in Quechua, Aymara, and Araucanian. Shifts in cultural habits may also be reflected in the vocabulary, as in Tehuelche, which formerly had a vocabulary designating different kinds of guanaco meat that is now very much reduced, because the group no longer depends on that animal for subsistence. Kinship terminology is usually closely correlated with social organization so that changes in the latter are also reflected in the former: in Tehuelche, former terms referring to paternal and maternal uncles tend to be used indiscriminately, even replaced by Spanish loans, because the difference is not functional in the culture any more.

      Proper names, to which different beliefs are attached, offer a variety of phenomena, among them the practice of naming a parent after a child (called teknonymy) in some Arawakan groups; the repeated change of name according to various fixed stages of development, as in Guayaki; word taboo, forbidding either the pronunciation of one's own name or the name of a deceased person, or both, as in the southernmost groups (Alacaluf, Yámana, Chon) and in the Chaco area (Toba, Terena); and the use of totemic names for groups, as in Panoan tribes.

 

2.4. Indianisms

      Incidental loanwords borrowed directly from Indigenous languages reflect the patronizing curiosity English settlers had for Native life and customs. As a novelty, anglophone speakers incorporated powwow, wigwam, moccasin, squaw and other words to describe Indigenous culture; they also adopted names such as moose, opossum, and raccoon for distinctly North American wildlife. Despite the occasional loanword, a more insular approach to Indigenous language prevailed among English settlers. Cotton Mather, the influential Puritan minister, explained the reluctance to accept linguistic borrowings: “the best thing we can do for our Indians is to Anglicise them in all agreeable Instances; and in that of Language, as well as others” (qtd. in Bailey 73).

      In anglicizing North America, settlers largely adapted the English lexicon to describe their new world. Culturally chauvinistic, this more frequent linguistic practice ignored existing Indigenous languages and adjusted English words and phrases in order to rename elements of Aboriginal society. John L. Cutler defines these English words and phrases as Indianisms: any “English words or phrases specifically related to Indians” (124). As settlers increasingly used Indianisms, the already low rate at which anglophone speakers adopted Indigenous loanwords decreased further.

      The most obvious and ubiquitous Indianism is Indian itself. Though accepted by many today, Indian not only erroneously denotes people who do not live in India, it also fails to distinguish between North America’s heterogeneous Aboriginal cultures. Instead of adopting tribal names Indigenous nations have in their own languages, anglophone speakers have used Indian, First Nations, Native American, and other blanket phrases that follow the changing trends of political correctness. Other popular Indianisms include Great Father, Indian summer, Indian giver, and buck. The later as a term for the American dollar is the clipped form of buckskin, an early form of currency between English and Indigenous traders. ¹¹

      Since Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and the 1890 US Census officially closed the American Frontier, popular culture has increasingly romanticized American Indians – often emasculating all Aboriginal groups by referring to the singular American Indian. In romanticizing “the Indian,” the American public has trivialized the very cultural icon it has sought to appropriate. C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood characterize this misappropriation as the “celebration of the Indian sacrifice in the name of imperial progress according to the divine plan of Manifest Destiny” (9).

      The American consciousness has, in part, defined the iconic Indian through the visual connotations of well-known Indianisms. Loanwords – such as squaw, tepee, and tomahawk – and Indianisms adapted from the English lexicon – such as brave, chief, redman, redskin, and savage – universally apply to and spice up the Indian myth; they create a collective lack of specificity in regards to the geographic distribution, tribal affiliation, and cultural nuances of the hundreds of unique Indigenous populations in North America. Regardless of whether he comes from Florida or Idaho, Nebraska or Arizona, the Indian always has red skin, dons a feathered headdress, wears moccasins, lives in a tepee, and whoops loudly as he twirls a tomahawk, throws a spear, and shoots bows and arrows.  Though many such Indianisms are stigmatized today, the images they convey remain pervasive, ubiquitous features of American culture (King and Springwood 2). Those same Indianisms also continue to symbolize athletic teams at every level of the American sporting industry.

      Mascots

      In his 1602 “An Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the Engliih Tongue,” Richard Carew describes the way English appropriates linguistic features of other languages: “For our owne parts, we employ the borrowed Ware so farre to our advantage, that we raise a profit of new words from the same Stock, which yet in their owne Country are not marchantable.” Though Carew could never have imagined the multi-billion dollar sporting industry that would exist in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, his comments eerily apply to the profitable anglophone exploitation of Indianisms. Nowhere does the American consciousness more explicitly illustrate the visual associations of Indianisms than Indian mascots.

      With the symbolic close of the frontier and the perpetuation of the Indian myth, anglophone America has historically justified its use of racist mascots as honoring the legacy of the American Indian – the same Indian that the American consciousness remembers annihilating in Hollywood movies, in childhood games, and across vast stretches of the continent. Carol Spindel explains, “Mascots don’t live in the real world, but in the rarified imaginary space created by the overlapping bubbles of two of our most cherished myths—sports and Indians. This doubling of mythology protects them; well-polished, transparent, it is completely invisible to most American eyes” (18).

      Increasingly, organizations have recognized the linguistic and visual racism connected with the continued appropriation of Indianisms in the naming of athletic teams and mascots. In August 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) made the controversial decision to implement restrictions on Indian mascots in championship events. The Linguistic Society of America, the American Psychology Association, and an increasing number of newspaper editorial boards have also expressed opposition to Indian mascots at any level of sports. The editors of The Oregonian and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, for example, no longer print team names or mascots with Indianism affiliations.

      In late 2005, the Linguistic Society of America singled out the University of Illinois for its mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Barefoot, dressed in full-length leather and beads, and wearing an orange and white war bonnet, Chief Illiniwek represents the state of Illinois’ flagship public university. He looks like the classic American Indian – ready to perform a sun dance, scalp a cowboy, or perform in Buffalo Bill Cody’s visual spectacle. On their website, the Honor the Chief Society defends the choice of Illiniwek as a way of embodying the “attributes valued by alumni, students, and friends of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The tradition of the Chief is a link to our great past, a tangible symbol of an intangible spirit . . .” (italics mine). The Society also notes that Coach Bob Zuppke first used the Indianism Illiniwek in the 1920s and adds, “Coach Zuppke was a philosopher and historian by training and inclination.” However, with American Indians representing only .2% of the university’s student population, it is difficult to see Illiniwek as anything other than a misappropriation of the Indian myth (Facts 2005).

      The University of North Dakota’s mascot sports the prerequisite gathering of feathers and looks appropriately noble. Native students represent just under 3% of North Dakota’s student population, so an Indian mascot in Grand Forks may seem more appropriate than in Urbana, Illinois (2005-2006 Student Body Profile). Still, with white students accounting for over 90% of its population, the University of North Dakota’s use of Sioux – the term Europeans have carelessly used to collectively describe Nakota, Lakota, and Dakota peoples – reflects the anglophone control of the Indian myth. Linguistically, the University of North Dakota has marketed its mascot in clever ways: at the campus hockey arena, fans buy Sioux-per dogs instead of hotdogs and Sioux-venirs instead of souvenirs.

      The Washington Redskins represent the quintessential anglophone appropriation of Indigenous culture. Vine Deloria argues, “With the increasing number of sports teams changing team names, those that remain are on shifting, sinking grounds, and consequently we can now see a determined racism emerging: for example, the Washington Redskins owner, who is adamant about keeping the name. No one realizes the image of Americans seen by the other nations of the world – in the nation’s capital the football team has the most derogatory mascot in the world” (xi). In April 1999, the Federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recognized the overt racism of the Redskins and said the disparaging use of American Indians the violated the law. Even after the Board voided the trademark rights of the team, the Redskins have continued using their name and the red-faced, feather-wearing mascot.

      In 2002, a University of Northern Colorado intramural basketball team developed the Mighty Whites mascot – a satirical portrayal of a 1950s white man. The Mighty Whites mascot received national media attention and symbolically challenged the countless Indian team names and mascots that exist at all levels of the American sporting industry¹².

      High schools across the country, however, continue to name their teams the Indians, the Redskins, the Braves, the Warriors, and the Red Raiders (King and Springwood 2). In addition to the Fighting Sioux and the Fighting Illini – both appropriately militant in the perpetuation of the Indian myth – the University of Utah has the Utes, Central Michigan University uses the Chippewas, and fans of Southeastern Oklahoma State University cheer on the Savages each Saturday in the fall. Professional teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves, and the Cleveland Indians also persist in misusing mascots in an extraordinarily profitable industry.

 

2.5. Writing and texts

      The existence of pre-Columbian native writing systems in South America is not certain. There are two examples, that of the Kuna in Colombia and an Andean system in Bolivia and Peru, but in both cases European influence may be suspected. They are mnemonic aids—a mixture of ideograms and pictographs—for reciting religious texts in Quechua and ritual medical texts in Kuna. The Kuna system is still in use.¹³

      Although the linguistic activity of missionaries was enormous and their work, from a lexicographic and grammatical viewpoint, very important, they failed to record texts reflecting the native culture. The texts they left for most languages are, with a few exceptions, of a religious nature. Most of the folklore has been collected in the 20th century, but many important collections (e.g., for the Fuegian and Tacanan tribes) are not published in the native language but rather in translation. There are good texts recorded in the native language for Araucanian, Panoan, and Kuna, for instance, and more are being recorded by linguists now, though not necessarily analyzed from a linguistic point of view.

      Efforts are being made in several areas to introduce literacy in the native Indian languages. For some, practical orthographies have existed since the 17th century (Guaraní, Quechua); for several others, linguists have devised practical writing systems and prepared primers in recent years. The success of these efforts cannot yet be evaluated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

3. The Indian borrowings in contemporary American

      In this chapter we are listing some mostly used Indian borrowings.

     Philosophical and Learned Terms

     Aryan - A member of the people who spoke the parent language of the Indo-European languages. In Nazism, a Caucasian Gentile, especially Nordic type. 
Of or relating to Indo-Iranian languages. Sanskrit arya - noble

     chakra - One of the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body according to yoga philosophy. Sanskrit chakram - wheel, circle

     dharma - A Buddhist principle and ultimate truth. Social custom and right behavior. Hindu moral law. Hindi dharma, from Sanskrit

     Guru - A teacher and a guide in spiritual and philosophical matters. A mentor. A recognized leader in a field. "Fitness Guru" Hindi/Punjab - guru (teacher), from Sanskrit guruh -weighty, heavy, grave

     Juggernaut - Something, such as a belief or an institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed. 
An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seem to crush everything in its path.

     The name of the Hindu deity Krishna – Juggernath Hindi Jaganath - Lord Krishna, from Sanskrit jaganatha : jagath -moving/the world + nathah - Lord/God

     Mandala - Any of various ritualistic geometric designs symbolic of the universe, used in Hinduism and Buddhism, as an aid to meditation.  Tamil mutalai - ball, from Sanskrit mandalam - circle

     Nirvana - In Buddhism, the ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion. A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire now sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma. It represents the final goal in Buddhism.

     A state of perfect happiness. From Sanskrit nirvana, nirva -be extinguished + nis -out + va - to blow

     Pariah - A social outcast. An Untouchable.

     Tamil pariah - caste name which means 'hereditary drummer'. The caste system in India placed pariahs or untouchables very low in society. First recorded in English in 1613.

     Pundit - A learned person. A source of opinion. A critic. "a political pundit"  
Hindi pandit - a learned man, from Sanskrit panditah - learned scholar, perhaps from Dravidian origin.

     Purdah - A curtain or screen, used mainly in India to keep women separated from men or strangers. The Hindu or Muslim system of sex segregation, practiced especially by women in seclusion.

     Social seclusion: 'artists living in luxurious purdah' Urdu/Persian paradah - veil, curtain. pan-around, over + da- to place

     Sati (suttee) - the former Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husbands funeral pyre.

     Hindi sati, from Sanskrit meaning 'faithful wife'

     This practice was banned in India in the early 20th century, when the British ruled over India. However it continues even today, in under developed states and rural villages, such as Bihar (a state in North India)

     Sutra - a rule or aphorism in Sanskrit literature or a set of these grammar or Hindu law or philosophy.

     In Buddhism - A scriptural narrative, especially a text traditionally regarded as a discourse of the Buddha.

     Sanskrit - sutram, tread, string

     Kamasutra - A Sanskrit treatise setting forth rules for sexual, sensuous and sensual love, and marriage: in accordance with Hindu law, made popular today by Western marital therapists and psychologists.

     Sanskrit - Kamasutram: kamah - love, sutram - thread, string, manual

     Swastika - The emblem of the Nazi Germany, officially adopted in 1935. In Buddhism and Hinduism, a religious symbol representing noble qualities and good luck.

     An ancient cosmic symbol formed by a Greek cross with ends of the arms bent at right angles either clockwise or a counterclockwise direction.  
Sanskrit svastika - sign of good luck: Svast - well being

     Yoga - A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which includes breath control, simple meditation and the adoption of specific body postures widely practiced for relaxation.

     Sanskrit, literally meaning 'union', referring to the union of the mind, body and spirit.

     Clothes, Clothing and Fashion

     Bandana (bandanna) - A large handkerchief usually figured and brightly colored.

     Portuguese from, Hindi bandhunu (tie dyeing) and bandhana (to tie): from Sanskrit bhandhana tying.

     This word was probably absorbed to Portuguese, when the Portuguese ruled over Goa, Bombay during the early part of the 17th century, and from Portuguese was absorbed to English.

     Bindi - A dot marked on the forehead, by Hindu wives, and sometimes men, to adorn or as a sign of the third eye - wisdom or God Shiva.

     From Hindi bindi. Made famous in the West by pop music singers.

     Bangle - A rigid bracelet or anklet, especially one with no clasp. An ornament that hangs from a bracelet or necklace.

     Hindi bungri - glass