Dakotan 'wakhaN'

[Koontz John E]

On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Rankin, Robert L wrote: Based on Jimm's observations,
I wonder if it wouldn't be better to distinguish *wakhaN and
*wakhaNta(ki).  Maybe it would be worth considering *xop- forms, too, on
the idea that this term is more used where *wa-hkaN has some sort of
special status?

Also, for some reason, Omaha-Ponca seems to have borrowed its term for
'rattlesnake' - s^(e)e'kki - from Miami-Illinois or something very
similar.  Unfortunately, I seem to have left David Costa's MI Dictionary
in my other bookshelf, but I know the first two syllables were quite
similar.  I wonder if this might not be a form of name avoidance, or
perhaps I should say antinominalism or something like that?  The standard
Siouan term for snake, OP w(e)e's?aN, is intact.

I do tend to think that the root of *wahkaN is -hkaN, but if 'medicine' is
*waNaN'hka, not *waNaN'hkaN, it could be from *waNaN'h-ka, with
contamination from *wa-hkaN in Mississippi Valley.

> Is it also possible that the root of 'sacred' was just -hkaN and that the
> wa- nominalized it?  Here, in any event are the two cognate sets.
>
>     	  		'medicine'		 'sacred'
> *PSI:			*wáN:hka		*wahkáN
> Dakotan:					 wakháN 'spirit, sacred'
> Chiwere: 		 máNkhaN 		 wakháN 'snake'
> Winneb:  		 maN:káN 	 	 wakáN  'snake'
> Omaha:   		 maNkkáN 	  	 wakkáNda 'sacred,  god'
> Omaha:		         maNkkáN 	  	 wakkáNdagi'water monster'
> Kansa:   		 mokkáN 	  	 wakkáNda 'holy, god'
> Osage:   		 maNhkáN 	  	 wahkáNta 'holy, god'
> Quapaw:  		 makkáN 	  	 wakkáNtta 'spirit, god'
> *OVS:			*muNka    'snake'
> Biloxi:   		  n-dé:si 'snake'
> Ofo:      		  oNktéfi 'snake'
> Saponi		        "moka" 	  'snake'

Although my mailer doesn't cast any aspersions on Bob's mailer's choice of
character set, I do see beta for a' and theta for e'. Actually the theta
looks a lot like the Linear B character that I used to think of as the
chocolate chip cookie.  Of course, that's the fault of HyperTerminal and
Windows, not Bob.