h- vs. x-aspiration in LDN

[Kathleen Shea]

I've been following the discussions about clouds, sky, celestial luminaries,
birds, and bugs, and I'll take this opportunity to comment without trying to
look up all the original postings to the Siouan list.  I checked by phone
with a couple of the Ponca-speaking elders I work with for some examples
containing the words we've been discussing.  Although, I don't think they
care if I identify them, or might even prefer that I do, I'll just refer to
these two elders by their initials PW (whom I call Uncle) and his
sister-in-law BL (whom I call Aunt).  I'll try to write the examples in "net
Siouan," with the standard written form in parentheses.

BL says that wagdhis^ka (wagthishka) refers to crawling bugs but does admit
that it could include ladybugs.  When I asked about inclusion of various
flying and crawling insects, I mostly got specific names for them.  She says
that the word waz^i~'ga (wazhi'Nga) refers only to chickens and uses the
word kkippa'j^a (kipa'ja) for any type of little flying bird.  The large
birds, such as birds of prey, all have specific names.  She says that
ma~xpi' (maNxpi') can mean 'cloud' or 'sky.'  I couldn't get her to say
anything in Ponca that could be translated, 'There are no clouds in the
sky,' but I did get the sentence a(a)'ma~xpi (a(a)'maNxpi) 'It's cloudy.'
(I'm using parentheses around the second a, because I'm unsure of the
length, even though I did hear something of a glottal stop or "creaky voice"
here, which often accompanies long vowels.)

PW says that wagdhi's^ka (wagthi'shka) is a worm or crawling insect but
could also be a lizard.  He said he would use the term wagdhi's^ka gia~'
(wagthi'shka giaN') for flying insects like bees, flies, and fireflies.  A
descriptive term, waz^i~'ga wadhi'ze (wazhiN'ga wathi'ze), literally, 'bird
that picks up chickens,' applies to a chicken hawk and all kinds of hawk.
For PW, waz^i'~ga (wazhiN'ga) means 'chicken, bird,' and kkippa'j^a
(kipa'ja) are 'little chicks just hatched, little birds in the nest.'  He
says that ma~xpi' (maNxpi') is 'cloud,' and ma~(a~)'g^e (maN(aN)'ghe) is
'sky.'  In a few short minutes, I got a plethora of sentences about clouds
and weather, shown here with PW's translations (with parentheses used here
in the Ponca words for elision):

ma~xpi'i  (MaNxpi'i.)    'It's cloudy.'
a~'b(a) akha' ma~xpi'i  (AN'ba akHa' maNxpi'i.)    'The day is cloudy.'  (PW
says this is like a warning, i.e. to take a coat.)
a~'b(a) akha' ma~xpi' akha'  (AN'ba akHa' maNxpi' akHa'.)  'It's cloudy out
there, here.'  (PW says that it's as though you
just noticed or just stepped outside and noticed.)
a~'ba th(e) ea~wa  (AN'ba tHe eaNwa?)    'How's the weather out there?' (to
which the first statement and the one
immediately above are answers)
a'ama~xpi'  (A'amaNxpi'.)  'It's clouding up. (scattered clouds)
ma~xpi'ia  (MaNxpi'ia?)  'Is it cloudy out there?'
a~'kkaz^i a'ama~xpi  (AN'kazhi, a'amaNxpi.)  'No, it's just cloudy here and
there.'
a~ba' akha kke'dhae  (ANba' akHa ke'thai.)  'It's clear out there.'
a~ba' akha kke'dha a'i akha  (ANba' akHa ke'tha a'i akHa.)  'It's clearing
up now.'
a~'ba the kke'dha  (AN'ba tHe ke'tha.)  'It's clear; today is clear.'
a~ba' akha kke'dha akha  (ANba' akHa ke'tha akHa.)  'It's clear out there.'
(just noticed)
A~'ba khe da~'baga  (AN'ba kHe daN'baga!)  'See about the weather!' (man
speaking to one person)

There is a woman's name, kke'dhawi~ (Ke'thawiN), that means something like
'calm disposition.'  (Women's names often end in -wi~ (-wiN) or begin with
mi~- (miN-), the latter apparently homophonous with the word for 'moon,
sun.')  PW says that mi~ (miN) means both 'sun' and 'moon,' although it's
hard for me to tell if the vowel is really nasal or not.  He differentiates
the two by using the phrases a~ba mi~ (aNba miN) 'sun, day luminary' and
ha~da~ mi~ (haNdaN miN) 'moon.'  The word nia~'ba (niaN'ba) means
'moonlight,' according to PW.

I hope these examples prove interesting.

Kathy Shea

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: h- vs. x-aspiration in LDN


> On Fri, 23 Feb 2001, Kathleen Shea wrote:
>
> > As you know, aspirated stops are somewhat rare in Omaha-Ponca, occurring
> > mostly in the definite articles (of which, of course, tHaN is one).  The
> > definite article akHa' doesn't have strong, velar aspiration, but I seem
> > to recall that the word for 'elk' does:  aNpHaN.
>
> > Actually, I should have written a nasal vowel for the first vowel in the
> > word for Arapaho since that's what I heard:  maNxpi' atHaN.  I'll try to
> > be on the lookout for other examples.
>
> The only one that occurs to me at the moment would be thaN as an article
> in other contexts.
>
> I notice also something here that I hadn't noticed before, which is that
> the original "thematic" -a suffix of Da maNxpiya, superflous in OP maNxpi,
> has been reinterpreted as the locative a- 'on'.
>
> JEK