bird.

Alan H. Hartley ahartley at d.umn.edu
Tue Nov 23 00:54:20 UTC 2004


>>Alabama tiskomma 'cardinal' (prob. onomatopoeic from the noise
>>'tististis' made by the bird, + homma 'red.' And cf. tiskila 'blue
>>jay.') Sylvestine et al. s.v.
>>
>>Creek tasi [both vowels at normal pitch] 'blue jay' (Martin & Mauldin
>>s.v.) No obvious cognate to tiskahomma.
>>
>>These all look (sound) onomatopoeic to me.
>
>
> This might well work for 'cardinal', but I don't think tis matches any of
> the blue jay calls, and it's not the usual form of onomatopoeic name for
> 'blue jay'.  "Jay" is actually more the typical sort of onomatopoeic for a
> jay.  There's also that rusty hinge noise, but I don't know how one would
> represent that.

I think at least the ta- part might be onomatopoeic. (BTW, Ojibway has
di:ndi:si for blue jay.) I connect rusty hinges with blackbirds (esp.
redwings).

Alan



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