Editing Illinois (section)

==Etymology==
{{See also|Illinois Confederation|List of counties in Illinois}}

"Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early [[French language|French]] [[Catholicism|Catholic]] [[Missionary|missionaries]] and explorers' name for the [[Illinois Confederation|Illinois]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fay |first=Jim |date=May 11, 2010 |url=http://www.illinoisprairie.info/Eriniouaj.htm |title=Ilinois, Illini and Liniouek |access-date=August 1, 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623234945/http://www.illinoisprairie.info/Eriniouaj.htm |archive-date=June 23, 2010 |publisher=The Illinois Prairie Information Page}}</ref>

American scholars previously thought the name ''Illinois'' meant 'man' or 'men' in the [[Miami-Illinois language]], with the original {{lang|mia|iliniwek}} transformed via French into Illinois.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hodge |first=Frederick Webb |author-link=Frederick Webb Hodge |title=Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico, Volume 1 |year=1911 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology |oclc=26478613 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ze4YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA597 |page=597 |isbn=9781404740303 |access-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204132005/https://books.google.com/books?id=ze4YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA597 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=George R. |author-link= George R. Stewart |title=Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/namesonlandhisto0000stew |url-access= registration |orig-year= 1945 |edition=Sentry (3rd) |year=1967 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]}}</ref> This etymology is not supported by the Illinois language,{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}} as the word for "man" is {{lang|mia|ireniwa}}, and plural of "man" is {{lang|mia|ireniwaki}}. The name {{lang|mia|[[Illiniwek]]}} has also been said to mean 'tribe of superior men',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.illinois.gov/facts/symbols.cfm |title=Illinois Symbols |access-date=April 20, 2006 |publisher=State of Illinois |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060415195518/http://www.illinois.gov/facts/symbols.cfm |archive-date=April 15, 2006}}</ref> which is a [[false etymology]]. The name ''Illinois'' derives from the Miami-Illinois verb {{lang|mia|irenwe·wa}} 'he speaks the regular way'. This was taken into the [[Ojibwe language]], perhaps in the [[Ottawa dialect]], and modified into {{lang|otw|ilinwe·}} (pluralized as {{lang|otw|ilinwe·k}}). The French borrowed these forms, spelling the {{IPA|/we/}} ending as {{lang|fr|-ois}}, a [[transliteration]] of that sound in the French of that time. The current spelling form, ''Illinois'', began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the western area. The Illinois's name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was {{lang|mia|[[Inoka]]}}, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms.<ref>{{cite book |last=Callary |first=Edward |title=Place Names of Illinois |year=2008 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |isbn=978-0-252-03356-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvHgwa-XImcC&pg=PA169 |page=169 |access-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204131219/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvHgwa-XImcC&pg=PA169 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Costa |first=David J. |date=January 2007 |title=Three American Placenames: Illinois |journal=Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=9–12 |issn=1046-4476 |url=http://myaamia.strackattack.com/OtherFiles/CostaNewsletter.pdf#page=9 |access-date= May 29, 2011 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716151840/http://myaamia.strackattack.com/OtherFiles/CostaNewsletter.pdf#page=9 |archive-date= July 16, 2011 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>