ppa 'nose/head (was Re: Colors in Dakota -Duta)

[ROOD DAVID S]

Lak. pxa can also be either nose or head, and can also refer to certain
kinds of protruding rock formations.  Somebody (probably Allan Taylor)
once suggested that its basic meaning is likely 'protuberance'.  Of
course, it's easy to imagine body part terms extended to geographic
phenomena; going the other way seems odd to me.



David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Koontz John E wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> > Doesn't /ppa/ also mean 'nose' in OP?  I've understood /ppa-xdhi/ as
> > 'nose' + 'nasty bodily secretion'.
>
> Correct, and probably a better rendition.  I think it was Bob Rankin who
> pointed out to me that *xri(N) tends to occur in various languages for
> 'nasty stuff that flows out of the body' - mucus, pus, drool, whatever.
> Not necessarily all possibilities attested in all languages.  In fact, *xr
> is a sort of phonaestheme in this general semantic area.
>
> I'm wondering if xnuta might not just be an root with some other relevant
> meaning, being likened simultaneously to 'red' and 'snot' in some
> elaborate folk etymology (or pun).  That might eliminate the exception in
> distribution of Asb. nuta for this form.  It might actually be funnier to
> have nuta used out of register in this word, though I'm not sure I'm
> qualified to judge what would be funny in this case.  Like Muskogean fakit
> 'turkey' it might require just the right cultural background to
> appreciate.
>
> > If so, are the words for 'head' and 'nose' historically equivalent
> > terms in Siouan?  MVS /*hpa/ ?
>
> True, I think.  I think *hpa developments often refer to 'animal head'
> (where the nose vs. head distinction is more moot, due to skull
> conformation) and the sense 'head' often appears mostly in compounds, cf.
> ppaha or ppas^na, etc.
>
> Omaha noNski 'skull' (I think) has been identified by Bob Rankin as a loan
> from Muskogean, for those who are interested in loans.
>