Stars, etc.

[Richard L. Dieterle]

Here is what I have in WI on star, sun, moon:

wi                          sun, moon, month
hamp wida	                  sun (lit., "day sun") [Gatschet]
haNhe wi     	              moon (lit., "night sun") [Gatschet]
hahewira (hah-ha-wer-dah)	  a moon [ge]
wijahaNpi	                  moonlight [Dorsey]
wiragos^ke, pl. wiragos^kera	star [Gatschet]
wirakos^kera	                star, stars ("sun-suspended") [Dorsey]
wiragus^kera (we-dah-goose-ka-dah)	  stars [Th. George]
Wiragos^ge HaNke Dirani	    the North Star (Polaris), "the Star
                            that does not Move." (cf. Crow, Ihaxaz^ise,
                            "the Star that does not Move.")
Wiragos^ge XedenaNgere  	   The Large Star, Morning Star
Wiragos^gew'iNga	           Star Woman, a personal name in the Bird Clan
wi-hojije (> wojije)	       meteor [Radin]
wiragos^ke ho-ikada	        shooting star [Gatschet]
wirakos^keras^ibare	        a meteor [Dorsey]

The word for "moonlight" might be a copying error for widahaNpi, which should be
the correct form.

Dorsey's analysis of wirakos^kera as "sun-suspended" is interesting.  The
nearest thing to kos^ke that I can find (other than skunk words) is gus, "rope."
I had rejected the XIXth century translations of "sun" for wi, and had replaced
them by "orb."  However, I can find no instance of a word like this for a
non-luminous orb (like a ball), so I will adopt "luminary" after Koontz.

Wojije is the usual for "meteor, comet," and it is what they call its spiritual
embodiment.