Re: Tonto and Kemo Sabe (was: Spanish ll ...)

On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 01:02:49PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> The etymology of Kemo Sabe, however, is as secure as any such thing
> can be:  it is from Potawatomi _gimozabe_ 'he who looks in secret',
> almost certainly intended as 'scout/spy', but also interpretable as
> 'masked man'.  (Potawatomi is spoken in Michigan, half a continent away,
> but there is a definite chain of evidence leading back to it.)
No reason Tonto couldn't have been a Michigander who'd moved West.
The Lone Ranger didn't exactly sound like he was from Texas, either. :)

> See http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz/faq/etymology.htm#Kemosabe
Iwgwien(*)!   Very interesting.  Especially the fact that Tonto was
explicitly stated to be Potawatomi in the radio show.  I always had the
distinct impression that he was supposed to be Apache (without having
ever heard of the Tonto Apache).


(*) that's Potawatomi for "Thank you", or at least, one of three
different translations of same found on the web.  The other two are
spelled |migwe'c| and |kcumigwe'c|; all three of which do seem to have
the component |gw(i)e|.  I have no idea what sounds are represented by
this orthography, I'm afraid.