Precious stones in Dakota Bk of Revelation

[Clive Bloomfield]

Anthony, Interesting topic. Have just checked Rigg's Dakota version  
of the BOOK OF REVELATIONS (St. John's Apocalypse), entitled :

"Wayuotanin Tawa Kin" /Wayu'othaN'iN Tha'wa KiN/ [lit.=his making  
manifest/his manifestation],

at 4:2;  and 21:18 to 21, where, as you know, all those exotic names  
for the precious stones occur in a large cluster.

Unsurprisingly enough, (one supposes), they either appear   
transliterated virtually unchanged from the original Greek, or   
almost ---  (in the following instance, for example, the Ancient  
voiceless/voiced Greek liquid continuant 'rho/ro' is assimilated in  
sound to the Dakota voiceless uvular fricative, for some reason.  
Influence of French-speaking assistants/informants perhaps?) -- or  
else are rendered by vague-seeming or generalized expressions like  
inyan teh^ika /i'NyaN theh^i'ka/ 'precious stone(s)!

e.g.

REV 4: 3
=============

"And he that sat was to look upon like jasper and a sardine  
<precious> stone : and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in  
sight like unto an emerald <stone>." (KJV)

[N.B. : <...> denotes word not in original, inserted for sake of  
clarity.]

Tuwe akan iyotanke cin he iwanyankapi kin inyan (teh^ika), iyaspis qa  
sah^dinos iyececa; qa oiyotanke kin ihdukshan wihmunke wan hmihbeya  
yanka, smah^agdos (inyan) kin iyececa.

[Here (...)-bracketed words refer to aforesaid insertions, but ARE in  
orig. Dakota text.]


Orig. NT Greek words here are, transliterated respectively :

iaspidi [Dat Sg. Fem.] < iaspis 'jasper';

sardioi [Dat.Sg.Neut.]<sardion 'carnelian/cornelian/sardine (from  
Sardis) stone', and

smaragdinoi [<Adjective smaragdinos  'emeraldine; 'made of emerald';  
Dat. Sg.Fem. modifying  Dat.Sg.Fem. noun :  horasei<horasis = 
(here)'appearance; outward aspect']

[NB: To lend support to this interpretation of that (prob. Greek 2- 
gender-termination) adjective's gender, is fact that Clementine  
Vulgate text has an exactly corresponding phrase :
'visioni zmaragdinae', both noun & adj. being Dat.Sg.Fem.    (Greek  
'horasis' (f.)= Latin 'visio'(f.); Greek m./f. adj.  
'smaragdinos'=Latin f. adj. 'zmaragdina') ]

Actual grammatical reason for use of Dative cases here, is that both  
adjective & noun are governed in their turn by adjectives each  
meaning "like (TO/UNTO)"
: In the Greek text : "homoios" (here, 2-termination adj.), in the  
Latin  : 'similis' : these two agree in case, number & gender  with  
the noun 'iris' (Nom.Sg.Fem.), which in both languages denotes  
'rainbow'.

(Corresponding Greek noun here would be smaragdos (m. or f.)  
='emerald', which is the actual Greek word, Riggs et al. have  
transliterated & 'Dakotafied' above.)


REV 21:18 to 21
====================

Dakota Words (in order of appearance) :

21:18 iyaspis; mazaskazi ecedan [=gold only; i.e. pure gold].

21-19 inyan teh^ika ocaje owasin; iyaspis; saphiros; kalkedon;  
smaragdos.

21-20 sardonis; sardius; krusolitos; berulos; topaz; krusophrasos;  
huakinthos; amathustos.

21-21 inyan teh^ika ocaje ake nom [=twelve sorts of precious stones  
(pearls?)]; inyan teh^ika wanjidan; mazaskazi ecedan janjan iyecen  
wiyatpa.



NT Greek originals in same order (all given in Nominative Sg. form,  
where possible) :

21:18 iaspis; khrysion katharon [=pure gold].

21-19 pas lithos timios [=every (sort of) precious stone(2)]; iaspis;  
sapphiros; khalkedon; smaragdos.

21-20 sardonyx; sardion; khrysolithos; beryllos; topasdion;  
khrysoprasos; hyakinthos; amethystos.

21-21 dodeka margaritai [=twelve pearls];  heis margarites [=a single  
pearl]; khrysion katharon hos hyalos diauges [lit.= gold pure as  
glass translucent]


J.Poage Williamson's Engl-Dakota dict. (1886) has inyan teh^ika for  
'pearl' as well as for 'jewelry'.


Regards,

Clive.

P.S. How there, bonny lad? How've those funny-talking Mackem types  
south of the Tyne, been treating you lately? ;)

P.P.S. Done much Hebrew, Greek & Latin?





On 24/01/2008, at 10:06 PM, Anthony Grant wrote:

> As a matter of interest, what does the Lakota NT do with such items  
> as the lists of precious stones in the Book of Revelations?  The  
> names and entities (chrysoprase, for instance) are mostly as alien  
> to native speakers of
> English as they would be to Lakota speakers.
>
> Anthony
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