Same word, different meanings

Kathleen Shea kdshea at ku.edu
Mon Oct 25 03:37:38 UTC 2004


The first two are homonyms, with both vowels being nasal.  The third word is a compound of nu 'man (male)' and zhiNga 'little, young.'  (I'm not familiar with the truncated form nuzhiN.)  The word noNzhiN (naNzhiN with Ponca spelling) meaning 'to stand, standing' can occur after the main verb, functioning as an auxiliary with "durative" aspectual meaning:  naNzhiN naNzhiN 'It keeps on raining.'

Kathy Shea
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jonathan Holmes 
  To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu 
  Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 7:23 PM
  Subject: Same word, different meanings


  Recently I have seen the same Omaha/Ponca word in different texts with three different meanings ascribed to it.

  noNzhiN - arise or to stand

  noNzhiN - rain

  noNzhiN - young boy

  Are these meanings correct depending on the context they are used?

  Does the meaning change depending on other words used in conjuction with it?

  Is one meaning correct and the other two the result of mis-translation?
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