Note VII-2 — Chapter VII · GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[VII-1]

The form of the word Mississippi was not fixed with eleven letters till after 1800. President Jefferson, a scholar of his times and especially interested in linguistics, used nine or ten letters. Our fashion of doubling all the consonants except the first is distinctly an innovation which has no advantage over Misisipi, but on the contrary the undesirable effect of obscuring the pronunciation of the Algonquian elements by neutralizing the vowels. Analysis of the eleven letters shows three consonantal sounds, one of them repeated, and each of these four followed by a short if not neutral vowel: Mi-si-si-pi. The initial m is a nasolabial, not likely to vary, and in fact constant. This is followed by a sibilant surd, repeated, with probable and actual variation to s of c or ch in one or both places. The final consonant p is a labial surd, easily and actually variant to its sonant b. The name is really a term of two words: Misi Sipi=Misi River—whatever Misi may mean. Waiving this, and taking the name as one word, the actual variations which I have noted from time to time may be thus displayed as regards the eleven letters: (1) m, constant; (2) i, variant to a and e; (3) first s, var. to c, or missing; (4) second s, var. to c and ch, or missing; (5) second i, nearly constant, when present; (6) third s, var. to c, not to ch, when present; (7) fourth s, same as third s; (8) third i, var. to e and y; (9) first p, var. to b; (10) second p, constant, if not dropped after the third p, never present if the third p becomes b; (11) final i, var. to e and y. The permutations possible under the several variants indicated may be ciphered out by those who have leisure for amusement; probably not one-tenth of the possibilities are actualities in print; and of those actually existent probably no complete list has ever been made. We might expect to find 30 forms without much trouble. Some of the examples I have noted are: Mischipi, Freytas, from Spanish Relations of 1661, pub. 1663, perhaps the first appearance of the word in print; Messipi, Allouez, in French Relations of 1667, said to be the original form in that language; Mississipy, 1671; Messisipi, Joliet, after 1673; Micissypy, Perrot; Masciccipi, La Salle, qu. misprint in first syllable? Meschasipi and other forms in Hennepin, 1683, and his editors; Messchsipi on an old map, about 1688; Michi Sepe, Labal, as cited by Brower; Mechesebe, etc. The general evolution of the present word has been: early elimination of c or ch; tendency of all the vowels to i, with e in the first place and y in the last place longest persistent; and then the doubling of the s's and the p, all the possible cases of this process being not only extant, but neither very old nor very rare. The unconscious motif here seems to have been to give the longest river the longest name. There are many other names of the "Mycycypy" river, aboriginal, Spanish, and French, for the whole or certain parts of its course. Spanish relations from De Soto yield for lower parts of the river Chucagua in variant forms; Tamalisieu; Tapatui; and Mico. Also, for about the mouth, we have Malabanchia or Malabouchia, from French narration, D'Iberville, Mar. 2d, 1699. An Iroquois name, Gastacha, is cited. Spanish relations yield several of the earliest names, all of which have been translated; e. g., El Rio, The River, Knight of Elvas, pub. 1557; Rio Grande, Grand r., Great r., ref. to Hernando de Soto, near Quizquiz, Sunday, May 8th, 1541, and at Guachoya, Apr. 17th, 1542; Rio del Espiritu Santo, as De Biedma, River of the Holy Ghost, with variant spellings of the phrase, cf. Chavez map, in Ortelius, Antwerp, 1580, and Cortés map for Spanish Charles V., 1520; Rio de las Palmas, River of Palms, Admiral map, 1507, pub. in ed. Ptolemy, 1513 (I cite these two without prejudice to the question whether they did actually apply or were only supposed to apply to the Mississippi); Rio de los Palisados (as I find it cited, though it seems to me R. de las Palizadas would be better Spanish for Palisade r., the connotation of this term being what a steamboat man would mean if he said Snag or Sawyer r.); and Rio Escondido, Hidden r., because it was hard to find the right channel through the delta. Certain genuflexions of French knees to powers that were and happily be no longer, are reflected in the names Rivière de la Conception, sc. of the B. V. M., which Marquette conceived in one of the unisexual transports of his morbid imagination, June 15th or 17th, 1673, trans. Immaculate Conception r.; R. de Buade, sc. Frontenac r., as Joliet, who had an eye to a visible patron; R. de Colbert, as Hennepin, who kept one eye on St. Anthony and the other on King Louis; R. de Louis, R. de St. Louis, R. de Louisiane of various F. relations (St. Louis occurring in letters patent of Louis XIV. to Crozat, Sept. 14th, 1712); from descriptive phrases which are found in Radisson's relations, Forked r. and River That Divides Itself in Two have been evolved as names with the aid of capitals; the upper section of the stream, flowing from Lake Itasca, has been called R. à la Biche, Elk r., from the former F. name Lac à la Biche, translating Ojibwa Omoshkos Sogiagon; the next section, Bemidji-sibi, with many variants of this, in Ojibwa, French, Italian, and English; the next section, R. aux Cèdres Rouges, Red Cedar r., Cassina r., Cass r.; next section, Winnibigoshish r., in many variants; and below the confluence of the Leech Lake fork, Kitchi-sibi, Great r. There are also several forms of the Sioux name, to the same effect as Kitchi-sibi. I am ignorant of any English name originally given as a genuine appellation, and not a translation or mere epithet, like "Father of Waters," and the like. It is text-book tradition that this phrase translates the Algonquian term; which tradition is too untrue and too popular to ever die—let it rest in peace, along with Washington's hatchet and Tell's apple. It is Featherstonhaugh, I think (I have mislaid the mem. I once made), who remarks with great gravity and great truth, that "Father of Waters" is a misnomer, because the river resulting from the confluence of other rivers is the Son of Waters and not the father of them at all. This is a sober sort of statement, for a witticism; it is not a figurative locution or a flight of fancy; it is a solemn fact. It only stops short of the most comprehensive statement that can be made regarding the origin of rivers, which is, that all rivers arise in cloudland.