Year, Earth

[Catawba Cultural Center]

In Catawba, the word for "earth" and "year" is the same, and the word for
"month" and "moon, sun" is the same.

Catawba Cultural Preservation Project

-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu
[mailto:owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Richard L. Dieterle
Sent:	Monday, March 19, 2001 5:48 PM
To:	siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject:	Year, Earth

"Lakhota also has o'makxa - season, year. I wonder, how/why do these words
in
Siouan relate to makxa 'earth'?" --"Wablenica"

I had assumed that maN, "earth," and maN, "year," were accidental homonyms.
Here's what I've gotten so far in Wi:

maN	                  year, years [Dorsey-Longtail, Gatschet]
maN 	                 time [Marino-Radin]
maNn	                 year [Gatschet]
maNiz^aN	             a year [Dorsey]
maN nubohanaNga	      to elapse (of years) ? [cf. nup] [Marino-Radin]
maNjiregaN	           as the years go by; year by year [cf. maN, earth;
jire, to
                      go by] [Marino-Radin]
maNgicawaN	           forever, for eternity [cf. maN, time; ca, waN]
                      [Marino-Radin]
maNnegus	             all the years past [narrator of "Worœxega"]
maNnegusdi	           forever (to measure by the earth) [narrator of "Ghost
                      Dance"]
maNnegusji	           forever, always [cf. maN, time] [Marino-Radin]
maNni	                winter [cf. ni, agentive nominalizer ?] [Marino-Radin]
mani	                 winter [Gatschet, Dorsey]
mani hinz^i huwire	   the last year [Gatschet]
maNnina (maah-nee-nah)	year, winter.  "This really means 'winters' -- the
                       Winnebago count years by winters." [George]
manit'e	              this winter [Dorsey]
manine 	              this winter [James StCyr]
manine	               last winter [Gatschet]
maninga	              in winter [Aleck Lonetree]
maNniniz^aN          	a year [George]
maNs'ireja	           long years ago [Rufus Tiver]
MaN canaha raniz^e?	  How old are you? [Gatschet]
mokahi	               a number of years [cf. kahi ?] [Marino-Radin]
maNci	                to winter [cf. maN, time; ci, lodge][Marino-Radin]
marace	               to plan [cf. maN, earth, time][Marino-Radin]

maNna                 the ground [Dorsey]
maNra (maun-dah)	     ground [George]
ma	                   earth, ground [Gatschet]
ma	                   lands, country [Gatschet]
maN	                  earth [Gatschet, Dorsey-Longtail, Marino-Radin]
maN	                  ground [Gatschet]
maNna	                the land [narrator of "Worœxega"]
mo	                   earth, time (an older form of maN) [Marino-Radin]
MaN'u«na	             Earthmaker, the Creator [Dorsey]

The narrator of "Ghost Dance" gives the gloss for maNnegusdi as "(to measure
by
the earth)," but that, I think, is just folk etymology. I find it odd that
Marino suggests that the root of maNjiregaN, "as the years go by,"	is maN,
"earth."

maN also means, "a spring, shell, nest, arrow, wind, to strike." Some of
these
homonyms give rise to mythological symbolism (arrow for time, perhaps).