U.S. President

RLR rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu
Thu Feb 15 22:29:07 UTC 2001


> If you're curious, Wichita for 'president' (i':ri7asiwa:c7A)
> translates 'Big Chief'. Is that because Wichita is not Siouan, or > because they're in the Southern plains?

Good question. In addition to the Quapaw form I cited, that language
also has 'wajini kahike' for President. Wajini is 'whiteman < Virginia'
and kahike is 'chief'. I took it to be a neologism because of the word
order, but a large group of Quapaws lived with the Caddos in the 19th
century.

Interestingly, Osage has the borrowing 'wacini' from 'Virginia' also,
but there it means "disease". :-)

Bob



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