Titles, Mark 7

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Sat Jun 24 19:41:07 UTC 2006


It's just a compound of 'tobacco' and uNpa 'to smoke'.
 
Bob

________________________________

From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu on behalf of "Alfred W. Tüting"
Sent: Wed 6/14/2006 7:01 AM
To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: Titles, Mark 7



 >> I don't understand.'I smoke' is, as far as I remember, chanumuNpa,
chanu - m -uNpa; how is that reduplicated? The second person
looks reduplicated (chanu-nuNpa), but I think that's just the "n"
pronoun appearing where it's supposed to go. <<<<


 > The third person of 'to smoke' is chaNnuNpa. If the verb were a
regular m-/n-verb, the third person would have to be chaNnu'uNpa to get
first and second person chaNnumuNpa and chaNnunuNpa. We could actually
posit chaNnu'uNpa as basic root and analyze the third person as a
contracted form, but still, we need that contraction rule which moves
this verb a little farther away from being a 'regular' m-/n-verb. The
transitive version uNpa 'to smoke (a pipe etc.)' has first person muNpa,
second person nuNpa and is therefore a 'regular' m/n-verb. <<


I wonder if this - a bit weird - construction is due to the fact(?) that
it is a verbalization derived from the noun _chaNnu(n)pa_ - pipe/calumet
which literally has nothing to do with 'to smoke' rather than being a
compound meaning 'two-woods' (chaN-nuNpa), i.e. 'bowl and stem'. Or - as
though pretty obvious and convincing - would you call this 'folk etymology'?
If so, and there actually is an (original!) verb for 'to smoke' _uN'pa_
(-> uNmuN'pa, uNnuN'pa, uNkuN'papi), what then is the meaning of _chaN-_
forming another existing verb for 'to smoke'? Why then (and for what
reason at all) this compound(?) verb has an additional -n- inserted
(chaNnuNpa - to smoke/s/he smokes)?? Consequently forming chaNnuNmuNpa,
chaNnuNnuNpa etc.). I'm quite hesitant assuming that _uNpa_ was first in
the sense of egg and hen.
I'd easily imagine that in this case the verb (to smoke) might have
derived from the noun chaNnupa. Cf. German Pfeife - pfeifen (pipe - 'to
pipe' = to wistle).

I'd be interested in your knowledgeable opinions.


Alfred



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