Omaha and Lakota Words

[Scott Collins]

Me too...

Scott P. Collins

 
--- On Thu, 8/25/11, Mary C Marino <mary.marino at usask.ca> wrote:


From: Mary C Marino <mary.marino at usask.ca>
Subject: Re: Omaha and Lakota Words
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011, 11:25 AM


I'd like to hear it.

Mary


On 25/08/2011 6:42 AM, Cumberland, Linda A wrote:
> Not for Dhegiha, but I have a nifty and rather lengthy one for
> Assiniboine, if you're interested. -Linda
>
> Quoting Scott Collins <saponi360 at yahoo.com>:
>
>> In relation to Umon'hon'ti, the Sacred Pole of the Omaha, Riddinton
>> from 1993 states, "...Umon'hon'ti is a single person in whom these
>> halves have joined." This statement is talking about the nature of
>> the Sacred Pole, i.e ceremonial object, an the coming together of the
>> Above World and the Middle World into one being/ceremonial object.
>> Are there any other examples of this dual nature in Omaha words.
>>
>> On another subject, I also wanted to ask if there are Omaha stories
>> about Morning Star that are similar in any fashion to the Hochunk
>> stories of Morning Star and Evening Star. Anyone on the list that may
>> have information regarding this in Osage, Quawpa, Ponca and Kansa-Kaw
>> also?
>>
>>
>>
>> Scott P. Collins
>>
>>
>> --- On Mon, 8/22/11, Rory M Larson <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: Rory M Larson <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu>
>> Subject: Re: Omaha and Lakota Words
>> To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
>> Date: Monday, August 22, 2011, 6:16 PM
>>
>>
>> David wrote:
>>>                   I wonder if wiN and Omaha mi are cognate, despite
>>> the difference
>>> in meaning.  Lakota 'moon' is wi, without nasalization.
>>
>>
>> David, I'm pretty sure they are cognate in this case, both with the
>> meaning of 'woman'.  We are dealing with two separate roots here, but
>> in Omaha they are similar enough to be confused.
>>
>>               Lakhota           Omaha
>>               -------           -----
>>
>>   sun/moon      wi               mi`(N)
>>
>>   woman         wiN              mi_(N)
>>
>> I've recently established, tentatively, with one speaker, that there
>> is a pronunciation difference between the two terms in Omaha.  The
>> 'sun/moon' term apparently has an emphatic, falling pitch or tone,
>> while the 'woman' term is more drawn out and level in pitch.  In
>> terms of the long/short vowel dichotomy researchers have been looking
>> at in other languages, I have been supposing that the emphatic,
>> falling pitch is short, while the more level pitch is long.  (There
>> is a third, rising and falling tone in Omaha which is much less
>> common, and which is neither of these.)  However, this interpretation
>> clashes with what is recorded in Carolyn Quintero's Osage Dictionary
>> and in Helmbrecht/Lehmann's Hocak Teaching Materials, both of which
>> have the vowel for the 'sun/moon' term as long.  Perhaps Omaha has
>> reinterpreted the original system so that length itself is no longer
>> a factor.
>>
>> In Lakhota, wi and wiN can easily be distinguished by nasalization or
>> not, because /w/ is an oral consonant.  In Dhegiha, this /w/ has
>> become /m/, which can flavor the following vowel with its nasality
>> and ruin the distinction.
>>
>> As an added complication, the old mi_(N) term for 'woman' has dropped
>> out of the vocabulary in Omaha, and I believe in Dhegiha generally.
>>  It has been replaced by *wak?o, which is wa?u` in Omaha.  The mi_(N)
>> term remains in about a half-dozen compounds, where it sometimes
>> contrasts with nu`, 'man', which is cognate with Lakhota blo.  But
>> the fact that it doesn't exist as a separate word means that native
>> speakers may not recognize that mi_(N) means 'woman'.  In the case of
>> mi_(N)-x^u_ga, some of them apparently rationalized the mi_(N) as
>> mi`(N), understood as 'moon', and developed the moon dream conception
>> as an explanation for the existence of the mi_(N)-x^u_ga.
>>
>> Rory
>>
>
>
>

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