S^ahaN as 'Sioux'

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Fri Aug 20 17:41:19 UTC 1999


This also reflects a query from David Costa.  The information here
probably won't be new to comparativists or specialists in ethnonyms, but
might others in passing.

This is a list of possible look-alikes for s^ahaN' 'Sioux'.

Mandan:  xaNruNwaNk 'Sioux' Hollow, p. 308, supposed by Hollow to be xaNh
'grass' plus ruNwaNk 'man', but xaN might also be a fricative grade of a
contracted s^aN < s^ahaN.

Winnebago:  s^aNaNhaN'aN 'Sioux' KM-2917 (entry number in Ken Miner's
unpublished Field Lexicon); s^aawiN' 'Sioux woman' KM-2906 (wiN 'female').

OP:  "caa'<raised n>" /s^aaN'/ 'Sioux', cf., e.g., Dorsey 1891 throughout.
For that matter, I've elicited the form myself.  OP deletes h in VhV'.  I
think s^ahaN is attested in other Dhegiha languages, but don't have a
reference.

Ioway-Otoe:  sahaN' ~ s^ahaN' (Good Tracks) (s^ in process of shift to s)

Dakotan:  The only resemblant is from Bray & Bray, eds., 1976, 1993,
Joseph N. Nicollet on the Plains and Prairies:  the Expeditions of 1838-39
with Journals, Letteers, and Notes on the Dakota Indians, pp. 259, 260,
where the term "Saonis [Saone], or the whitish people, whose robes are
always well-whitened with white earth; sa, whitish, oni, to rub." is given
as applying to the Minneconjou, "Wanonwakteninan" [Didn't recognize. JEK],
Sans Arc, Blackfoot, and Hunkpapa branches of the Tetons.  Nicollet's
etymology could be quite correct, of course.  As this form omits
intervocalic h, it would have to be understood as an Omaha loan, I guess,
if involved in this set.

Note that this is an example of 'white Indians' and why one should be
suspicious that reports of such imply European contact.

Perhaps worth consideration, though I don't know enough about Caddoan to
be able to comment on them or their potential involvement in this set.

Pawnee:  cararat 'Sioux' (Parks 1976:43)
Arikara:  sana'nat 'Sioux' (NATS 2.1:  text 3, line 5, p. 4)

Note that the s^ahaN form appears fairly widely (minus the nasal vowel, of
course) in Algonquian languages from the "Old Northwest" area, e.g.,
Miami-Illinois, Fox, Shawnee.  I didn't try to collect such terms, as
David Costa presumably knows a lot more about them than I do!



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