Black Again

[Koontz John E]

Here's a little comparative footnote that might particularly interest Bob
Rankin.  Leaving aside the issue of sound symbolism, Siouan languages tend
to have two roots for 'black'.  One is *sap(e), the other is *sep(e),
yielding, e.g., Da sapa or OP sabe and IO sewe or Wi seep.  A few
languages have both, e.g., Qu sa 'black (near)', s^ape 'black (disant)',
sewe 'black'.  Some languages conract things to -sp-.

I can now transfer Omaha-Ponca to the two term category.  The other day I
noticed in Fletcher & LaFlesche, p. 177, a female name Mi'sebe (Mi'c,ebe)
glossed 'dark or shadowy moon'.  This is a name in the TesiNde clan.

Of course, names can be borrowed, so one might argue that the name was
adapted from, say, Ioway-Otoe, but, one might as easily argue, at this
point, anyway, that the stative verb se'be is a relict preserved only in
this name.  I haven't noticed it elsewhere, certainly, and it doesn't
occur in the Dorsey texts.  Perhaps evidence of a pattern of borrowing
names in the TesiNde clan might sway matters in favor of a loan, but I
don't know of any such evidence, and at our present state of Siouan
philology such evidence might be difficult produce.

SInce this is the second case of both *sap(e) and *sep(e) in a Dhegiha
language, perhaps the presence of both forms is characteristic of Dhegiha?