School: ttappuska

Catherine Rudin CaRudin1 at wsc.edu
Fri Jul 23 18:49:11 UTC 2010


Dorsey (slip file) translates it as 'teacher, missionary' (for both
Omaha and Ponca) and gives wagoNze as a synonym (that's the word Jimm
cited in IOM).  

Actually, even the speakers I worked with in the 1980s seemed to prefer
"ttappuska tti" for 'school', not just "ttappuska", though I don't think
they used it to mean 'teacher'.   

Catherine

>>> "Justin McBride" <jmcbride at kawnation.com> 7/23/2010 1:10 PM >>>
Rory,

It's definitely in Kaw. The Kaw Mission pastor in the 19th century,
Thomas Huffaker, was called ttappĆ³ska by the students. Plus, Bob's 20th
century consultant Maude Rowe used it to mean 'teach.'

Also, I'm sure Linda knows Doug's email address just in case he's not a
member of the board. But either way, I think a lot of his Pawnee
dictionary data are available on the AISRI website at
http://zia.aisri.indiana.edu/~dictsearch/. Just use the pull-down
menu to switch between languages and dialects.

I hope this helps,
-Justin
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rory M Larson 
  To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU 
  Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 12:37 PM
  Subject: School: ttappuska


  Hi all, 

  I've been looking at the Omaha term ttappuska, presently meaning
'school', but apparently meaning 'schoolteacher' in the 19th century. 
It also appears in Osage, in both the La Flesche dictionary and in
Carolyn Quintero's recent "Osage Dictionary", where it is listed as
taapo'ska.  I think is nicely analyzable in Dhegiha, but Carolyn's entry
has the bracketted note: 

    [Borrowed from Pawnee taapuska 'school' (Douglas Parks). 
     The Pawnee word may have entered Osage at different times 
     in different forms, with or without preaspiration of the 
     stops (h)t and (h)p and with a long or short vowel aa 
     or a; it is losing or has lost the preaspiration in 
     (h)t and (h)p.] 

  This claims that the term is actually a loan from Pawnee.  I'm
wondering if Douglas Parks is on the list, or if anyone knows how to get
in touch with him, or if anyone else on the list knows Pawnee well
enough to comment?  Is the word analyzable in Pawnee, and if so, what is
the meaning? 

  Also, I'd like to know how widespread the term is.  Does it exist in
Kaw?  Iowa-Oto?  Ponka?  Any other language? 

  Thanks for any advice! 

  Rory 



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