Sleeps and Winters

[Alan H. Hartley]

> Does anyone know anything aobut the distribution in North America of
> the usage 'sleep(s)' in ennumerating days or 'winter(s)' in ennumerating
> years?

Ojibway has pipo:n 'winter, year', e.g. nisso pipo:n 'three years'
[Baraga _Dict. Otchipwe Lang._]

Blackfoot kaanistsísstoyiimihpa 'how old are you?' is literally (as
close as I can tell) 'how many winters have you?' (sstoyii 'be
cold/winter) [Frantz & Russell _Blackfoot Dict._]

Iñupiat has ukiuk 'winter, year' [Webster & Zibell _Iñupiat Eskimo
Dict._]

Chinook Jargon has cole 'winter, year', from Eng. cold, e.g., ikt cole
'one year' [Thomas _Chinook_].

In Plains sign language, the signs for 'winter' and 'year' are the same
[Clark _Indian Sign Language_].

Creek and Alabama apparently lack both the year=winter and day=sleep
equations. (My cursory look showed no example of the latter in any
language.)

Virginia Algonquian used cohonk (wild goose) as 'year'.

Alan