kakowan & reduplication

[Colin Bruce]

Just a thought but could the reduplication of kakawan be referring to a mythical double finned orca
I've seen pictures of?





Henry Kammler <H.Kammler at EM.UNI-FRANKFURT.DE>@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG> on 05-02-2003 22:21:58

Please respond to H.Kammler at EM.UNI-FRANKFURT.DE

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Subject:  Re: kakowan & reduplication

One more note:

As Scott mentioned /kakawad/ as "long on the back", I had to figure it out.
Indeed there is a Nootkan root /ka=/ "protruding" and a suffix /-'win(q)/ "in
the middle". To take up Dave's idea: some suffixes cause a reduplication of the
first CV-Sequence of the root but /-'win(q)/ doesn't. The two elements would
yield */ka'win/, not /kaka'win/. Simple reduplication, however, is freely
productive on whole words (when it is not conditioned by other elements),
mostly in a distributive sense. /kaka'win/ could then literally mean "severally
protruding in the middle" conveying the picture of several orcas finning. Just
a guess. At any rate, this seems to be another example of metaphorical,
euphimistic use of words.

Carmichael may actually have been trying to write Nootka. Just as the alleged
CJ in John Jewitt's diary which is in most cases simplified Nootka, too.

Henry K.