Colors in Dakota -Duta

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Wed Mar 26 18:06:53 UTC 2003


On Tue, 25 Mar 2003, Linda Cumberland wrote:
> My Assiniboine consultants say -nuta 'red' is only used in names.
> Examples are wiNyaNnuta 'Red Woman", xexaka nuta 'Red Elk'. However,
> one word for 'turkey' is paxnuta 'red snot', but that's the only
> non-name Assiniboine word I have, so -nuta seems to be only productive
> in naming.

Which part of this last means 'red' and which part 'snot'?  From Omaha
words for which I don't know the Dakota/Assiniboine equivalents, I'm
thinking there must be some overlapping of morphemes here.

I think OP 'snot' is ppa(-)xdhi 'head' + 'nasty bodily secretion'.

JEK



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