gypsum or "mica"

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Patricia Albers wrote:
> Would anyone on the listserve happen to know the Lakota word for
> gypsum, also loosely called mica?

Interesting!  I'd never heard of a connection in English terminology.
When you read of mica as something traded, say, within the Hopewell
Interaction Sphere (term?), which do they mean?

Here are a few ideas struggling toward being a non-answer.

I checked in Ingham, Buechel, and Williamson without any luck.  I suspect
this simply reflects a hole in these dictionaries' coverage.  (See Osage
below.)

The only minerals listed in Buechel (under stones) are:

khaNghi't[h]ame 'black shale' (a black. smooth stone found along the White
     River)
wahiN ~ waNhi 'flint'

Yuwi'pi is defined as 'transparent stones' in the same article, which to
me suggests quartz or some other mineral at least translucent, but I am
not a student of yuwipi.  I did notice yuwi'pi was^i'c^uN 'a sacred round
hard stone that is supposed to have power in the hands of those who have
dreamed' - for those who have been following the was^i'c^uN discussion.

A syllable like 'me' is quite unusual in Lakota.  It reflects
Proto-Mississippi Valley *W ((as opposed to *w), which normally becomes b
in Santee as depicted in Riggs and turns up as w or m in Buechel.  I don't
know why sometimes m (maybe when the underlying stem is BaN? - cf. Riggs).

Since Riggs gives be 'to hatch, as fowls.  Same as maN" I assume that me
(mAN, a nasal ablauting stem?) had a similar gloss at some point, but is
now moribund.  It doesn't occur in Buechel - and neither does we or maN.
That suggests that khaNghi' ['crow'] tha [ALIENABLE] me {cf. be or baN?)
means something like 'crow('s) egg(s)' or 'crow('s) hatchling(s)'.

The root hiN in 'flint' is pan-Siouan and tends not to change much, except
that it is sometimes hard hit by contracting and largely hidden in
compound terms for 'knife' or 'projectile point'.

===

I found both terms in LaFlesche's Osage Dictionary:

moNiN'hka ska 'gypsum' (literally 'white earth' or 'white clay')

iN'hkoNpa 'mica; a tumbler for drinking water'
     (literally iN 'stone' + hkoNpa 'be light, transparent')
     The stem hkoNpa is not listed separately.

I also noticed:

iN'hkoNhkoNdha 'friable rock or stone.  A symbol used in rituals.'

===

Back tracking these in Lakota, I did find in Buechel:

ma[n]k[h]a saN 'whitish or yellowish clay'  (Vermillion is 'red clay')

And then, of course, yuwi'pi is/are described as (a) transparent stone(s).

===

The Omaha Pebble Society refers to the pebble as iN'kkugdhi 'translucent
stone'.  The form kku'gdhi is cognate with Lakota khogli 'translucent,
clear'.

I apologize for the use of "NetSiouan" orthogaphy.  I can clarify it if
you need to know more standard lettering.

JEK