Interesting Sentence from E. A-O-H (& Maltese Cetaceans!)

[Clive Bloomfield]

Greetings Alfred & other Siouanist friends,

Since I seem to have caused this little digression in the first  
place, by quite provocatively (& incorrectly) speculating on that  
Maltese feminine plural,
perhaps, by way of compromise, I might be allowed to 'atone'  
somewhat, by gently leading us back on-topic with a few observations  
on the structure & vocabulary of a most intriguing Lakhota sentence,  
from the passages quoted extensively here earlier this month, from  
Emil Afraid-Of-Hawk's Iyapi translation of Nolan Clark's "Brave  
Against the enemy"(1944), (with a little Maltese "whale-lore"  
appended by way of a footnote.)?

Incidentally, my sentence also alludes to Bruce's earlier captivating  
topic of Lakhota words & expressions for FEELINGS/EMOTIONS.

Here is the fascinating sentence in question [It occurs as the second  
sentence of the second Lakhota paragraph, (which begins : "Marie  
Heh^logeca....") in my post of Jan 7] :

A) Emil AFRAID-OF-HAWK TEXT [p.19] :

Iteoyuze awichableze kin hingnaku kin wachantokpani tkha wowachinye  
nica wicasha kin hecha, na hoksila kin insh waechinchinpika  
wachantokpanipi kin hecha ableze.

B) Ann NOLAN CLARK's original [p.18] :

"She read in their faces the hopeless longing of the man, the eager  
longing of the boy."

[NOTES :] I will submit one interpretation, but naturally my mind is  
open to other viewpoints! (which is exactly why I am here:) ).

That first 'kin' seems to be used to topicalize (focus) & nominalize/ 
sentence-embed(Ingham, Lakota, 12.2.2.) the first two words 'iteoyuze  
awichableze' [=What she perceived on their faces], in the very  
familiar manner of such sentences  [Buech.Gr. p.230, #136, 2) a)]  
as : "wachin KIN he le e." [="this is what I want/what I want is  
this." -taku/takuku or some some such pronoun being understood there,  
one presumes.].
The immediately ensuing two hecha clauses, joined by conjunction  
'na', beginning 'hignaku kin...hecha', and 'hokshila kin...hecha'  
appear to me to be PREDICATED of this topic, with 'ableze' appended  
anaphorically as a recapitulation, perhaps, of the embedded verb  
'awichableze'.
Thus I would translate more literally :

"What she discerned on their facial features/from their facial  
expressions (iteoyuze), (was) that her husband was the kind of man  
(hecha) who experienced longing for things (wachantokpani), yet  
lacked all faith/confidence (wowachinye nica), and that, as for the  
boy (hokshila kin insh), his nature (hecha) was to be one of those  
(partitive 'kin') who become "squeaky-wheels" (waechinchinpika kin),  
when they set their hearts on something (wachantokpaninpi), - that  
much she saw clearly (ableze)."

As regards that intriguing word 'waechinchinpika' (not in Riggs, or B- 
Md.), I had to guess at the meaning from the context, as well as  
being, of course, guided by Nolan Clark's English original.
Also, B-Md's lovely word "waekichinchinke" glossed thus : "one who  
persists in asking; one who wants sthg. very badly, and often asks",  
based presumably on the same basic root : "chin", also sheds much  
semantic light, I believe.
The animate plural -pi suffixes, on waechinchin(pi)ka & wachantokpani 
(pi), led me to realize that the final 'kin' before 'hecha ableze',  
in all likelihood, marked a Partitive construction with hecha.
Also, one has often heard people endowed with such traits,  
characterized as "squeaky-wheels", hence that rendering.

Kind regards to all,

Clive.






On 28/01/2008, at 6:07 AM, Alfred W. Tüting wrote:

> (Clive)
>
> > BTW, Bruce, my Maltese friends tell me that , in their enchanting  
> tongue also, ħuta (f.sg.)  [Two plurals (Determinate) ħutiet ;
> > (Collective) ħut] is the usual word for fish.
>
> > Their word for whale is baliena. Not sure of plural there, prob.  
> balienat, or balieniet.
>
>
>
> Clive, some 20 years back when in Għawdex (Gozo), I had been  
> grappling with this very interesting language Malti for a couple of
> years; Maltese being the only "Arabic" I ever ventured to deal  
> with, I was eager then to even filter out some news from the local  
> newspapers.
> (I still own some yellowed copies, BTW.)
> Consulting my old sources (Kaptan Pawlu Buġeja's "Kelmet il-Malti -  
> Dizzjunarju Malti-Ingliż Ingliż-Malti and a grammar book by Joseph
> Aquilina) I wasn't able to get a definite answer to your "quite  
> simple" question ;-) Obviously the manifold plural forms in Maltese  
> are
> so obvious for native speakers - and students of English - that  
> teacher Buġeja didn't regard them as worth mentioning.
>
> So I've to dare a guess: the word for "whale" might be treated as a  
> loan word (not being of Arabic descent rather than adopted from  
> Sicilian or
> Italian la balena), and it - also - seems to be fem.. So I'd  
> suggest baliena [IPA baliə:na] - balieni [IPA baliə:ni]. Having  
> checked all the rules
> regarding "plural by suffixes" (a "broken plural" doesn't seem to  
> be appropriate), this seems to be the most probable result - but  
> who knows? :(
> My doubts regarding your ?balienat or **balieniet - the stress  
> would've to move to the last syllable -> ?baliniet - derive from  
> baliena 1) NOT being
> of Arabic origin, 2) maybe not being adapted to the semitic word- 
> pattern of Maltese. Here (2) I might be wrong though. What do you  
> mean?
>
> Kind regards (and apology for being far off-topic)
>
> Alfred : Ṫaigmuakiṫo (AWT)

Dear Alfred, You are absolutely correct, imho!
Baliena is of course a LOAN word, very probably from Sicilian balena  
(f.sg.) (whale) and as such, most unlikely to take one of those  
native Maltese semitic plural formations, either by feminine plural  
suffix (-at/-iet), or Broken Plural.
Further, since diphthong -ie- only occurs in stressed syllables  
(J.Aquilina, TYMaltese, 1965, p.28) writing a word balieniet would  
grossly violate a major orthographical rule of Maltese!
Finally, since feminine words ending in -a in Sicilian  regularly  
form their plurals in -i (unlike in Standard written Italiano)  
[Joseph E. Privitera ; "Beginner's Sicilian", Hippocrene Books, 1998,  
p.44], so that balena would have Sicilan plural baleni, I reckon that  
your suggestion there is spot on 'the money'!
[See also Acquilina, op.cit., p.77, 1. (i).; Capt. Paul Buggeja,  
"Maltese-How To Read & Speak It", Il-Hajja Press, Malta, 1958, 1974,  
p.107]
There are lots of similar feminine words of similar origins, such  
as : karta/karti 'paper'; bolla/bolli 'postage stamp'; kuccarina/ 
kuccarini 'teaspoon'; karozza/karozzi 'car', which confirm your  
conjecture.  However, a notable exception is 'furketta' Pl. 'frieket'  
-perhaps it was more thoroughly semiticized, because 'borrowed' earlier?
Mea culpa, Well done!

Alles gute,

Clive.

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