Washk=?utf-8?Q?=C4=85_?=in Otoe-Missouria

[Rory Larson]

Ø  This is one of those ultra rare examples of an older Otoe source using "maði" rather than "manyi".  What is the "maði" doing here?  (FYI the suffix -nye means "they").  Could it mean they are "always" watching over their flock?  I suppose.  But to me it seems like the idea is what they are doing on this particular night which really has me thinking about your "being" or "existing" senses and that maybe they could be applied here.  But can "doing" mean the same as "being"?  Not sure.  I'm going to keep this in the back of my mind...especially as it can perhaps apply to names (like my friend's) and see if anything "clicks" in my mind.

I think one way to look at this is as a Siouan equivalent of the progressive aspect.  What’s being signalled here is that the action was going on at the time that something else occurred.  So if the shepherds were watching their flocks, that’s part of the background that the speaker is painting for you in preparation for the main event they are going to tell.

In European languages, we generally have some simple verbal device for presenting the progressive.  In English, we use some form of “be”, plus the action verb, plus “-ing”:  the shepherds were watch-ing.  But in at least some of the Siouan languages, one of about four basic verbs of position/motion is used after the main verb: ‘lie’, ‘sit’, ‘stand’, or ‘walk’.  This allows Siouan speakers to express not only the progressive aspect, but also a special nuance of that aspect.  This could be literally the position of the party doing it, or more abstractly, how general the action’s ongoingness is.  In Omaha, at least, I believe that ‘sit’ generally means that the condition is a temporary and conditional sort of thing, while ‘walk’ is something habitual or characteristic.

Thus, you might have several choices in signalling the progressive aspect.  If the shepherds WALK-watch their flocks, they are walking about and making their rounds in their activity.  If they STAND-watch their flocks, they are standing up, looking on in a state of dynamic tension.  If they SIT-watch their flocks, they are watching while sitting down and relaxed.  If they LIE-watch their flocks, then they are sacked out on the job.  But in a more abstract way, if they WALK-watch their flocks, the activity is open-ended.  The shepherds, habitually and characteristically, are always doing it.  But if they SIT-watch their flocks, the activity is temporary and conditional.  That would imply that the shepherds just happened to be watching them at the moment of the main event, but probably hadn’t been watching them long before, and probably wouldn’t be watching them much longer.  It would be happenstance behavior, not their normal activity.

In names, these position/motion modifiers wouldn’t exactly imply the progressive aspect as they do in full sentences, but the mode of the behavior would still be in force.  So Xude-moNthiN, ‘Walks Gray’, would mean that the cat goes around characteristically manifesting grayness.  Similarly, WashkaN-moNthiN would be the name for a person that goes around manifesting strong, vigorous activity.  (In Omaha, at least, shkaN means ‘to move’.  With the wa- prefix in front of it, wa-shkaN seems to mean the characteristic of being active, showing strength.  So we would probably translate it as ‘strong’ or ‘active’.  Think of someone who is hard-working and busy, constantly seeing things that need to be done and doing them, like a good leader.)

Best,
Rory





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