sky, turtle

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Jimm G GoodTracks wrote:

> For comparision:
> There seems some correlation of the IO and WI as you present it below.
> There is an IO story which speaks similar to the story of the Red Horn
> Cycle.  In this story, a group of ten men go on the warpath and come to
> the crack in the earth (end of the world).  Upon jumping over it, they
> come to a Spirit Lodge, ....

Although we're perhaps wandering off of what might be for some linguistics
(etymology) into literary issues, which I think we should try to avoid,
this would seem to be the Omaha-Ponca story 'The Chief's Son and the
Thunders' which I had not previously realized might be a part of the
Redhorn story.

> IO= chewax^u, toad [lit. "warty buffalo"].

In the "NetSiouan" notation this would be c^hewax?u.  It vaguely resembles
the Wi form, but has a different etymology.  OP has ttebi?u < *hte-pix?u.
The instrumental is different, pi- instead of pa-, but the root x?u is the
same, and the initial syllable, apparently an incorporated *hte (cf. Da
pte) 'buffalo'.  I don't know what the x?u root signifies.  Osage, where
the root would take the form k?u has pak?u 'dig a ditch', so the idea of
removing material is there in common with xku in the Winnebago word.

JEK