Letter from Jeanne Englert
Ute vocabulary – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Hello there. Timothy Englert, his older sister, our Havana Brown cat and I went on a trip to California. On the way, to and fro, I noted more pah words that might be of interest to readers, pah being in its various spellings the Ute/Paiute word for water.
(My story about Ute place names appeared in the August 1995 edition of Colorado Central —
http://www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/archive/cc1995/00180239.htm
Paruis is the Paiute name for the Virgin River, said our shuttlebus driver, referring to the river which runs through Zion National Park. She said she was told this river was originally named Pai-ru, meaning rushing waters.
Only the Paiutes can say for sure, but I identified many pah/pai words on this trip just using a Delorme Arizona Atlas Gazetteer and reading exit signs. For example, at Las Vegas, there is an exit sign on Interstate 15 named “Pahrump.”
And there were more. There was Supai, and Havasupai, the little tribe that lives in a travertine side canyon of the Grand Canyon. I quote directly from the Delorme Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer, page 14: “Supai Havasupai 371,222 acres. Location of Havasupai tribe, known as ‘People of the blue-green waters.’ ”
Given my so-called “expertise” in Ute words, I saw others. Tonopah, a ghost mining town in Nevada. I saw the Wawapai exit off Highway 89 to Sunset Crater. Colorado Central readers who subscribed back in 1995, might remember what I said about Ute place names in Colorado: Paiute and Ute are so related they can talk to each other.
The trick is to remember that Anglos didn’t know how to spell Ute sounds they were unfamiliar with so it takes some sleuthing. But I think alert Colorado Central subscribers — and I assume we are all alert — will spot more “pah” words in our travels.
Toyoc (Be well)
Jeanne W. Englert
Lafayette
