hoppas / hoppus

[Henning Garvin]

>In that shape it might be Winnebago, because of the ho- initial and lack
>of a final vowel.  Ho- is the Winnebago version of *o- 'in, into', which
>is a common enough initial morpheme of words for containers.  I don't
>recognize the word off hand, but will look further.


Not likely in HoChunk.  'hopase' is a corner. 'hopahas' is to chase towards
something, drive something (like herding animals).

' paNaN' is a bag.

But backpack is usually wiik'ii.  A device used to carry something on the
back.

I have two native speakers sitting here wiyth me, and they can't make heads
nor tails out of hoppas/hoppus, even though they gave it a good try.


Henning Garvin
Linguistic research
Ho-Chunk Nation Language Division

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