ho 'circle'

Michael Mccafferty mmccaffe at indiana.edu
Wed Jul 14 18:22:47 UTC 2004


I'm having a paper published on Jean Nicollet and the Ho-chunk and have
included in that article the "big fish" etymology. Should I withdraw that
etymology before the piece goes to press? Siouanist of the world, unite!
Let me know.

Thank you,

Michael McCafferty

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004, R. Rankin wrote:

> > It seems to me that the usual analyses of hoo-c^aNk, etc., 'Winnebago' in
> > terms of 'big voice' and 'big fish' make less sense than 'big-(camp)
> > circle', which strikes me as an excellent village name - and village names
> > are likely sources of ethnic names.  However, since *ho (3) isn't attested
> > in Winnebago, this alternative has only been considered, or even occurred
> > to anyone, in the context of the CSD project.
>
> Well, even the /-caNk/ < *htaNka 'big, great' of /ho:caNk/ is otherwise pretty
> much missing from WI.  I think /ho/ 'circle' is a very reasonable explanation.
>
> Bob
>
>
>

"...and cicadas sing
a rare and different tune..."

R. Hunter



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