Note 93 — CHAP. LXVI.
Reading edition
The u sound in the first syllable of the name is the only original one, not only in the Songhay, but also in the Arabic form; but it has gradually been changed into an i, and almost all the Arabs at the present time pronounce and write Tinbuktu, تِنبُكتُ. The town was probably so called, because it was built originally in a hollow or cavity in the sandhills. Túmbutu means hole or womb in the Songhay language: if it were a Temáshight word, it would be written Tinbuktu. The name is generally interpreted by Europeans, well of Buktu, but tin has nothing to do with well. See Vol. I. p. 333, note.