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Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906) /
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Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names — Passage 20 (part 3)
Gerard is certainly right when he explains the radix _mat--mata_--by confluence, junction, debouching, and forming verbs as well as roots and nouns." _-A'wan, -wan -uan,_ etc., is an impersonal verb termination; it appears only in connection with impersonal verbs. (See Waronawanka.) Matteawan is met in several forms--Matawa and Mattawan, Ontario, Canada; Mattawan, Maine; Matawan, Monmouth County, N.
J.; Mattawanna, Pa.; Mattawoman, Maryland. Fishkill, the English name of the stream of which Matteawan is the estuary, is from Dutch _Vischer's Kil._ It was probably applied by the