Unakas

English

Etymology

Plural of Unaka, from Cherokee ᎤᏁᎬ (unegv, “white”). Doublet of Unicoi.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /juˈneɪkəz/

Proper noun

Unakas

1. A mountain range in the southern Appalachians, on the border between Tennessee and North Carolina; since 1932 defined as the northern segment (north of the Little Tennessee River) of a range the southern segment of which is known as the Unicois (historically the two names sometimes interchangeably designated the whole range).

Related terms

• unakite

Noun

Unakas

1. plural of Unaka
   • 1989 July 1, Thurman Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 22:

     When the band ran out of tobacco, Tah-cung-tees-kee proposed they replenish their supply by killing a few Unakas.

References

• Summerlin, Vernon & Cathy. Upper Unaka Mountains: Longstreet Highroad Guide to the Tennessee Mountains. Sherpa Guides. Retrieved from http://www.sherpaguides.com/tennessee/upper_unakas/index.html

^ Owen Link McConnell (2013 December 10) Unicoi Unity: A Natural History of the Unicoi and Snowbird Mountains and Their Plants, Fungi, and Animals, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

On early maps the preset Unicoi Mountains were labelled either "White Mountains" [...] or "Unaka Mountains" [...] James Mooney (1900), [...] states that the word, "Unicoi," is "Probably a corruption of une'gă, white, whence comes also Unaka." [...] T. J. Holland, the tribe historian of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees, told me that the Cherokee language adds "hi," pronounced "hee," at the end of a word to designate a place; hence, "une gă '-hi," meaning "white place," was probably the origin of the name, "Unicoi." Presumably [...] in reference to their color in winter [...] Since “Unaka” and “Unicoi” had been in common use as alternative names for the northern and southern segments of the Unaka ridge for many years, Horace Kephart (the writer who chronicled the language and ways of people living in the Great Smoky Mountains) proposed in the late 1920s that "Unaka" be retained as an official name for the northern segment and that "Unicoi" be used for the southern one.

Anagrams

• Anuaks, Aukans, Kaunas