OAS ARCH NOTES 84-4:21-3
John Steckley
The name of an important Neutral village appears twice in the Jesuit Relations: a) as “Te otongniaton” in 1641 (JR21 :225) ; and b) as “Teotocdiaton” in 1641 (JR36,141). The difference between the two forms is merely one of the Huron dialect in which each is recorded. The first is written in the language of the Bear tribe, the dialect found in most of the entries in Sagard’s dictionary, Brebeuf’s Huron catechism1, and the Jesuit Relations exclusively until 1646. The second form is written in the dialect that appeared in the Jesuit Relations from 1647 on, the dialect that came to be spoken at Lorette. The -gi- of the Bear dialect (phonetically -gy-) is also recorded for the Wyandot (as will be seen in the Wyandot words given below).2
There is not much in the way of evidence in the contemporary literature informing us where this village was located. We only know that it was about midway through the country of the Neutral, as such was travelled by Jesuit Fathers Brebeuf and Chaumonot in the winter of 1640-1 (JR21:225).3 In the following analysis I will add a linguistic component to that evidence, narrowing the location possibilities.
The Point
The village name has in its construction the noun -ondi- (or -ongi-) meaning ‘point of land’ (Potier 1920:455). In order to understand what the Huron meant by ‘point of land’, a few examples are necessary to serve as illustrations .
In the Huron maps there unfortunately is only one clear example of the use of this noun in a place name. In the “Description du Pais des Hurons”, dated as 1639-1651,4 we find the offshore island, Snake Island in Lake Simcoe termed “ondioe”. Along with Heidenreich, I feel that this toponym can be translated as ‘where there is a point of land in water’ (Heidenreich 1971:308).5 Maps la and lb give some idea as to how it relates to its surroundings.6
More examples of this noun are found in Wyandot place names of the 1740’s recorded by Father Pierre Potier. In his “Places aux francais” (Potier 1920:154) we encounter “Te, aton9iarii *pointe a le chevelure”.7 This term for the twin points of Crown Point and Chimney Point protruding into Lake Champlain is probably a Wyandot translation of the cognate Mohawk term (it being in traditional Mohawk territory). In Potier’s verb list it was translated in the following way:
“te, iatondiari, i 2 pointes de terres q/u/i semblent etre jointes sur un lac ou une riviere. ‘two points of land that seem to be joined in a lake or river’.” (Potier 1920:347)
The Mohawk cognate is translated by Lounsbury as, “two points which have come into close proximity to each other.” (Lounsbury 1960:59). See maps 2a and 2b.8
In Potier’s “Pointes, Rivieres &c” we find the following identifiable place names:
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a) “ondiiake *pointe de sable” which can be translated as ‘where there is a point of land’ (see point A in map 3).9
b) “oronten, e oton9iata *pointe mouillee” which can be translated as ‘where there are trees at the end of a point of land’ (see point B on map 3).10
c) “karindiniondi tond9iata & p. aux roches” which can be translated as ‘where there is a standing rock at the end of a point of land’.11 (see point C on map 3).
The Curve
The other element in the word, the verb, appears to be -aton-, presented by Potier as meaning, ‘to bend, curve, be bent, curved’ (Potier 1920:368 #1). With the addition of the dualic, here manifested as -te-, and the semireflexive, here manifested as -t-, we get ‘te otondiaton’, meaning roughly ‘a curved or bent point of land’.
It is suggested, then, that the village “Te ongniaton” or “teondiaton” will be found on or near a curved point of land jutting into Lake Ontario or the Grand or other main river.12
Footnotes
1. Brebeuf, Jean de, “Doctrine Chrestienne, dv R. P. Ledesme de la Compagnie de Iesvs”, in Samuel de Champlain, “Voyages; ou journal des descouvertes de la Nouvelle France, tomes I-III, Paris, 1830.
2. This sharing of a feature, and the probable predominance of the Petun in the Wyandot, presents linguistic evidence suggesting that the Petun (or one of the groups that made up the Petun) and the Bear may have sprung from a people separate from the speakers of the other Huron dialect. At this point this evidence should not be interpreted as anything more than suggestive.
3. Trigger identifies this village as being that of the Neutral leader, Tsouhahissen (Trigger 1976:689), while A. F. Hunter says that the two villages were different (JR21:317 fn18). In my reading of the relevant Relation, the evidence is inconclusive.
4. The fact that the -d- dialect form is used here, rather than the earlier -g- form, suggests that the date range for the map might be 1646-1651.
5. Heidenreich listed a group of possibilities, the most accurate one being that the -o- is a verb (Potier 1920:400) meaning ‘there is water, dampness’, and the -e- is a locative suffix meaning ‘at or on’. This combination also appeared in the Huron name for Christian Island, ahwendo,e, meaning ‘where there is an island in water’.
6. “Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of York”, 1878, Miles & Co., Toronto, p.52, and Graham Lamont, “Toronto and York County: A Sample Study”, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1970, p.28.
7. This verb is also found in the place name for Quebec, “te, iatontari,i” (Potier 1920:347) meaning ‘two large bodies of water join’ (referring to the water that circles around Isle d’Orleans and meets on either side).
8. “The Pictorial History of the American Revolution” by Rupert Furmeaux, J.G. Ferguson Pub. Co., Chicago, 1973, p.151, and “The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition”, Americana Corp., Danbury, Conn., 1979, facing p.56, vol. 28.
9. Lajeunesse, Ernest J., “The Windsor Border Region”, The Champlain Society, University of Toronto Press, 1960, p.xliv.
10. The construction of the term with -ondi- here is the one presented by Potier as follows: “etiotond9iata au bout d’une pointe” (Potier 1920: 358 #84).
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11 . This is the same name as the ‘standing rock’ in the traditional home of the Petun.
12. Judging by the existence of such Wyandot place names as: a) “etiondiniondiha *point a … des 3 rivieres/words blurred/” (Potier 1920: 155) meaning ‘where a point of land sticks out, stands out’ (op. cit. p.398 #28); b) “Tsond9ies *la grande pointe” (op. cit., P. 155) meaning ‘a very long point’ (op. cit., p. 385 #47); and c) “ond9ietsi l’endroit de mon/Potier’s/.hyvernement’ (oc. cit., p. 155), meaning ‘long point’ (op. cit., p. 385 #47); the point would probably not be one that jutted out very far.
References Cited
Lounsbury, Floyd
1960 Iroquois Place-Names in the Champlain Valley. The Univ. of the State of New York/The State Education Dept.
Heidenreich, Conrad
1971 Huronia: A History and Geography of the Huron Indians 1600-1650. McClelland and Stewart Ltd., Toronto.
Potier, Pierre
1920 “Elementa grammaticae huronicae, 1745” and “Radices Huronicae” in Fifteenth Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario. Clarkson W. James, Toronto, pp. 1-157 and 159-455.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold
1896- The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. The Burrows Brothers Co., Cleveland.
1901
Trigger, Bruce G.
1976 The Children of Aataentsic, 2 vols. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal.
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