Sacred Syllable

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 15 Apr 2001, Ardis R Eschenberg wrote:

> I remember an Omaha text where the earth says 'ku'' as it brings forth
> some rocks.

Oops!  Thanks!  I saw that in the search, and then forgot it when I made
the summary.  Wouldn't you know I'd forget the most interesting case ...

--

And, incidentally, Winnebago gu(u) could correspond historically to either
Omaha-Ponca gu(u) or khu(u).  Of course, other things could correspond if
it wasn't a case of inheritence.

There's another interesting kind of exclamation I've seen mentioned.  I
think it was Pond who reported a series of Dakota exclamations which he
said signified the kind of game hunters had secured.  I think the example
he gave was a syllable signifying the killing of a bear.  I don't recall
the specific form, but it struck me as immitative of the bear's
vocalizations, rather than, say, a word for 'bear'.