Mi, mi, mi
« previous post | next post »
[first draft written June 9-10, 2025 in Bemidji, Minnesota, where the famous giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox stand next to beautiful Lake Bemidji*]
During my peregrinations in upper midwest USA, I noticed a proliferation of place names beginning with "mi-". Because there are 10,000 big and little glacial lakes up here, I suspected that "mi-" might be a prefix signifying "water"). I had come to Minneapolis to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi in northern Minnesota. That alone was enough of an emphatic prompt to set me off on a linguistic "mi-" quest.
My main intention on this trip is to follow the Mississippi from Lake Itasca, whence it emerges as a small stream about ten feet wide you can walk across on a line of stones in northern Minnesota, to where it debouches into the Gulf in the south. European-American settlers named the Mighty Mississippi after the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯ-ᓰᐱ misi-ziibi ("great river"). (source) Misi zipi is the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river. (source)
So I had one strike against me on the first "mi".
The second "mi-" place name, Minneapolis, gave me more hope, but that Greek suffix ensured that the name as a whole was at best half Native American in origin. As a matter of fact, though,
Nicknamed the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls.
…
In the Dakota language, the city's name is Bde Óta Othúŋwe ('Many Lakes Town').[g] Residents had divergent ideas on names for their community. Charles Hoag proposed combining the Dakota word for 'water' (mni [h]) with the Greek word for 'city' (polis), yielding Minneapolis.
Well, it's still pure "mi-" (actually "mni-) at the beginning.
With bated breath, I turned to Minnesota. Bingo, a clear hit:
The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River, which got its name from one of two words in Dakota: "mní sóta", which means "clear blue water", or "Mníssota", which means "cloudy water". Early explorers interpreted the Dakota name for the Minnesota River in different ways, and four spellings of the state's name were considered before settling on "Minnesota" in 1849, when the Territory of Minnesota was formed. Dakota people demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mní sóta.
Many places in the state have similar Dakota names, such as Minnehaha Falls ("curling water" or waterfall), Minneiska ("white water"), Minneota ("much water"), Minnetonka ("big water"), Minnetrista ("crooked water"), and Minneapolis, a hybrid word combining Dakota mní ("water") and –polis (Greek for "city"). The state seal features the phrase Mni Sóta Makoce ("the land where the water reflects the skies"), the Dakota name for the larger region.
The initial "Mi-" of Missouri, the Siouan name of the longest river in America, which flows into the Mississippi from the west just above St. Louis, is completely unrelated to the Dakotan names mentioned above. The main linguistic problems with Missouri are not with its etymology, but with how to pronounce it:
The state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouria, a Siouan-language tribe. French colonists adapted a form of the Illinois language-name for the people: Wimihsoorita. Their name means 'one who has dugout canoes'.
The name Missouri has several different pronunciations even among its present-day inhabitants, the two most common being /mɪˈzɜːri/ ⓘ mih-ZUR-ee and /mɪˈzɜːrə/ ⓘ mih-ZUR-ə. Further pronunciations also exist in Missouri or elsewhere in the United States, involving the realization of the medial consonant as either /z/ or /s/; the vowel in the second syllable as either /ɜːr/ or /ʊər/; and the third syllable as /i/ or /ə/. Any combination of these phonetic realizations may be observed coming from speakers of American English. In British Received Pronunciation, the preferred variant is /mɪˈzʊəri/, with /mɪˈsʊəri/ being a possible alternative.
Donald M. Lance, a professor of English at the University of Missouri, stated that no pronunciation could be declared correct, nor could any be clearly defined as native or outsider, rural or urban, southern or northern, educated or otherwise. Politicians often employ multiple pronunciations, even during a single speech, to appeal to a greater number of listeners.[11] In informal contexts respellings of the state's name, such as "Missour-ee" or "Missour-uh", are occasionally used to distinguish pronunciations phonetically.
Water, water everywhere, and plenty of drops to drink
— finis —
———-
=====
*Lake Bemidji got its name because "Bemidji" refers to the Mississippi River, and how it flows across the lake from west to east. The word Bemidji means "Lake with crossing waters" and in its native Ojibwe it is Bemidjigamaag. (source)
It is odd that, when the Mississippi exits Lake Itasca, it flows northward about 35 miles. I stood at the exact spot where the Mississippi enters Lake Bemidji. You can see the river current, just a few feet wide at this point, flowing into the lake, and continues to be visible all the way until it leaves the lake and finally heads south. This phenomenon of the river channel flow being visible in the expanse of the lake gives rise to some of the lake's names in Indian languages. Stranger still, when winter comes and the deep freeze sets in, and ice forms over the entire lake to a thickness of 3.5-4 feet, such that you can drive vehicles over it, build ice-fishing houses on it, and so forth (this winter was particularly severe, so the ice was said to be thicker than usual), nonetheless, one can still see the river channel of water flowing out into the lake.
Afterword
After all this talk about toponymic prefixes, I am reminded of the famous case of the name of the large city (pop. 7,495,000), Wúxī 無錫／无锡 (“Wuxi City, southern Jiangsu Province”) that lies in the southern Yangtze delta and borders Lake Tai. Superficially / ostensibly, the sinographically transcribed name means "no tin", but according to critical scholarship, both syllables are misinterpretations. The first syllable is not a negative, but is a prefix found in other place names of the region. As for xī 錫, it has nothing to do with tin but is likely derived from the Old Yue language or old Kra–Dai languages spoken in southern China and northern Vietnam circa 700 BC and later.
Selected readings
- "The importance of rhythm for memorization" (6/22/25)
- "How to pronounce the surname 'Mair' and other Doggie talk" (2/17/22) — I still don't understand what Doggie meant by "Move out of Missouri"
- "Words for Water Being Sent to the Moon Europa" (3/12/14)
- Heather Peters, "Tattooed Faces and Stilt Houses: Who Were the Ancient Yue?", Sino-Platonic Papers, 17 (April, 1990), 1-28.
Doreen said,
June 24, 2025 @ 5:54 am
Unfortunately, many of the trees in Bemidji were blown down in a storm last weekend.
On a linguistic note, several locations in Bemidji have signage in Ojibwe, including the local branch of Target (a Walmart-style big box store), which has IIRC Boozhoo on the entrance door and Miigwech at the exit. See e.g. https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/ojibwe-language-sign-program-promotes-unity-in-bemidji
Bemidji State University offers instruction and qualifications in Ojibwe.
Victor Mair said,
June 24, 2025 @ 6:30 am
I am grateful to Doreen for telling us about Boozhoo and Miigwech. Indeed, I wanted to say exactly the same thing and eventually would have gotten around to it in a comment of my own.
It's sad to hear about all the storm damage to the beautiful trees surrounding Bemidji.
Pamela said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:21 am
As you know it isn’t common in Ohio to speak of other states but I do remember my grandparents calling Missouri Muzooruh, and they called Hawai’i Hoowhyuh. They also called Ohio Ohyuh (which I think I say myself). I don’t know what that is. They didn’t do it to states that ended in consonants. It’s like they changed final consonants to uh. Including “tomorrow” t’marruh and “borrow” barruh. If you had an Italian name it was just going to end in uh. What is that? Lazy?
VVOV said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:28 am
Indeed, Minnesota is full of lovely Dakota/Lakota and Ojibwe place-names.
I enjoy the confluence of calque and borrowing that occurs in Blue Earth County, home to the town of Mankato (Lakota mahkato = "blue earth") at the mouth of the Blue Earth River.
Philip Taylor said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:32 am
Pamela — "They also called Ohio Ohyuh" — is that Oh·yuh or Oh·hy·yuh ?
VVOV said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:38 am
Forgot to add— since the original post mentions Lake Itasca, in a linguistic discussion it’s worth mentioning that name has no indigenous etymology, but is one of the many pseudo Native American place-names infamously fashioned out of whole cloth by Henry Schoolcraft which litter various parts of the upper Midwest.
Robert Coren said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:55 am
My main intention on this trip is to follow the Mississippi from Lake Itasca, whence it emerges as a small stream about ten feet wide you can walk across on a line of stones in northern Minnesota, to where it debouches into the Gulf in the south.
Just as a side note, you can actually do this in Memphis, TN; a park along the riverside includes a scale model of the entire river, with about 3 inches of water in it. (Signs posted along the miniature waterway discourage, but do not expressly forbid, wading in it, or at least that was the case when I was there with a group of friends in 1999; I and at least one other member of of the party chose to take this as a challenge.)
CuConnacht said,
June 24, 2025 @ 10:14 am
I wondered about Mineola, Long Island, also in Algonquian territory, but the town website, all I could find, says: 'It was in 1858 when this land became known as Mineola, named after an Algonquin Indian Chief, Miniolagamika meaning, "Pleasant Village."' "Pleasant Village" sounds more like a place name than a personal name to me (but what do I know?), and more research may be needed.
Mike Maxwell said,
June 24, 2025 @ 11:19 am
Here in Maryland, there may be a similar phenomenon with river names that do not have obviously English names, several of which begin in 'pat' or 'pot': most famously the Potomac, but also Patuxent, Patapsco and possibly Bodkin Creek (although one source attributes the latter name to a peninsula allegedly resembling a bodkin).
CuConnacht said,
June 24, 2025 @ 1:46 pm
Mike Maxwell, also probably Port Tobacco, folk etymology from Piscataway Potopaco, said to mean inlet or bay..
CuConnacht said,
June 24, 2025 @ 1:47 pm
Potapoco, not Potopaco.
Victor Mair said,
June 24, 2025 @ 1:53 pm
@CuConnacht
That was a very good idea. Probably the name really means something like "water sweet", and that got interpreted as "Pleasant Village".
Peter Taylor said,
June 24, 2025 @ 2:07 pm
That's not obvious from the information given: if the Ojibwe word order is noun-adjective then misi for river could still fit perfectly with mi meaning water.
Victor Mair said,
June 24, 2025 @ 3:31 pm
@Peter Taylor
That's a reasonable conjecture, but
Ojibwa mshi- "big," ziibi "river."
Pamela said,
June 24, 2025 @ 9:21 pm
Hi Philip, I see what you mean. What I should have written was O-hy-uh.
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
June 25, 2025 @ 7:27 am
Victor Mair said,
There is a town / suburb northwest of Pittsburgh called "sweet water", i.e., "Sewickley".
Victor Mair said,
June 25, 2025 @ 10:22 am
@Benjamin E. Orsatti
Thanks very much for mentioning the town of Sewickley. I actually wrote a post about it a little over four years ago: "Must be something in the water" (6/16/21)
The reason I paid attention to Sewickley is that it lay close to my running route across Pennsylvania. Even more, I was intrigued that, though its population is less than four thousand, four of America's most outstanding China specialists come from this little town on the wooded, hilly outskirts of Pittsburgh (12 miles to the northwest).
One of them, Ed Shaughnessy (University of Chicago), had this to say about the name of the town: "There must have been something in the water (for your Language Log people, Sewickley is said to mean Sweet Water in one or another Indian language; I presume they were the ones who inhabited Mingo)".
Rodger C said,
June 25, 2025 @ 9:49 am
I grew up on the Ohio, but since I lived on the West Virginia side, I usually called it something like "Aha!" (Actually we all usually called it "The River.")
Andrew McCarthy said,
June 25, 2025 @ 3:05 pm
I'm reminded of how Dave Barry described the Missouri Compromise in a satirical account of US history: "it was agreed that one half of the people would pronounce it 'Missour-EE' and the other half would pronounce it 'Missour-UH.'"
David Marjanović said,
June 25, 2025 @ 4:42 pm
A simple merger of unstressed vowels.
Sarah said,
June 26, 2025 @ 10:39 am
Bemidji! What a beautiful area. Any chance you stopped by any of the Concordia Language Villages? I imagine you'd have a particular interest in Sēn Lín Hú 森林湖.
If it weren't for the excellent language pedagogy in action at Waldsee, the German language camp, I wouldn't have developed such a curiosity about linguistics as a child.
Victor Mair said,
June 26, 2025 @ 11:47 am
@Sarah
What a wonderful resource the Concordia Language Villages are for language learning in America!
https://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/locations