Sacred Syllable

[Rankin, Robert L]

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

ORdinarily this couldn't be related to Winnebago /gu/ since Omaha /u/ is
invariably from /o/ (and actually pronounced [o] about half the time in my
Omaha notes from ca. 1973). Nor can Winnebago /g/ be related to Omaha <k>
(/kk/), only to Omaha /g/. So the Omaha reflex for the WI sacred syllable
ought to be /gi/ if no sound symbolism is involved. I haven't run across
anything suggestive in my own work, sorry to say.

In this particular term though, I think probably <ku> is the standard root
for 'make a hollow sound' that is found in 'drum, box, cucurbit, etc. Kind
of makes sense that the earth might rumble when coughing up rocks. Winnebago
should have /ko-/ for that root.

Bob