sunflowers

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Tue Nov 6 02:52:56 UTC 2007


All,
 
I've had an enquriy from an archaeologist at Florida State U. about the words for 'sunflower' (Helianthus).  The comparative dictionary lacks any general term for the plant or its flower although there is a cognate set for its root, which was eaten.  The archaeologists are interested in the seeds and the domestication of same.  They're trying to determine whether the terms are similar in North America and Mexico, as there is some question whether Mexican and northern domestication of the seed plant were independent developments.
 
As far as I can tell there is virtually no uniformity across Siouan.  Here is what I have thus far:
 
Hidatsa:  ma:pha:      'day+flower' or 'morning flower'
Mandan:  ma?pe?     'day+flower' or 'morning flower'
Dakota:  waxcazi thaNka  'flower+yellow big'
Kansa:   mittogaxle   'sunflower'  mi 'sun+?'
Osage:   miihtoNeli  'sunflower'  mii 'sun+?', also
                xlazi            'flower+yellow' in term for August.
Ofo:         i:la akikcehi 'sun+flower' possibly calqued from English?
 
Does any one of you have additional terms?  We ought to be able to find words in Crow, Ioway-Otoe, Omaha-Ponca and Winnebago-Hocank at least.  Since probably every one of the above terms is simply descriptive, it seems likely that they won't find matches with any Mexican words.  Any additional help would be appreciated.   
 
Thanks,
 
Bob



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