WINN TERM "FRENCH"

[Jimm GoodTracks]

I went searching on the NET, and I found the following, which while
interesting, does not really provide a grasp of the original term:

 The Hotcâgara call the French, Waxopínixdjî`nîgra, "Little Much-Spirit"
people, or Waxopíniskága, "White Spirit" people; or simply Waxopíniga,
"Spirit" people. This last came to denote all white people. This is because
in 1634 the Frenchman Nicollet was the first white man to have made contact
with the Hotcâgara. He was dressed in Chinese garb in conformity with his
hopeful expectations, and when he arrived, he fired off two pistols. This
caused the Hotcâgara to believe that he was a spirit (waxopíni),
specifically, a Thunderbird. The French are also called Djimoxgemena, a name
of unknown meaning and provenance. French loan words in Hotcâk: ajenî´na,
"angel"; bík, pek, "playing card" < fr. pique, "spade"; Zaganâc, "English" <
fr. les Anglais.

ALSO:
One of Gatshet's informants in the 1880s/ 90s was:
David St.Cyr.  His Indian name is:  Waxópini Skága (White Frenchman).

This name agrees with the above passage, but does not help with the original
term in question.
Jimm

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: WINN TERM "FRENCH"


> On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 Rgraczyk at aol.com wrote:
>> -ta (citation form -te) is the distributive plural, so isbi'tchiihachite
>> would mean something like 'the ones with long knives'.
>
> Would it be reasonable to have hachka surface as hachki in this context?
>
> Do all final elements in -a in nouns become -e in citation forms?   For
> example, would bitchiia?
>
>
>