<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Re: gypsum or "mica"</TITLE>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<STYLE type=text/css>BLOCKQUOTE {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
DL {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
UL {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
OL {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
LI {
MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
</STYLE>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sorry, my slip. I meant Dakota /ka'gha/, not with an
aspirated /kh/. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A href="mailto:rankin@KU.EDU" title=rankin@KU.EDU>R. Rankin</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
href="mailto:siouan@lists.colorado.edu"
title=siouan@lists.colorado.edu>siouan@lists.colorado.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 09, 2002 3:53
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Siouan "khagha" ~
"ichagha"</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>This verb apparently meant 'make marks'
originally. In the Mississippi Valley Siouan languages it has been
generalized to 'make' in the modern languages. The older, common Siouan
verb 'make, so' is/was ?uN. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sorry I can't help with the mineral terms. It is a
real problem for all of us that cultural vocabulary has not been collected in
sufficient detail in most Siouan languages. In a few instances, such as
ethnobotany, talented scientists of particular disciplines (in this case
botany) have visited communities and collected a good many more terms than
linguists did. I haven't heard of any mineralogists who have done that
however. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A href="mailto:alber033@tc.umn.edu" title=alber033@tc.umn.edu>Patricia
Albers</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
href="mailto:siouan@lists.colorado.edu"
title=siouan@lists.colorado.edu>siouan@lists.colorado.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 09, 2002 12:21
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: gypsum or "mica"</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I have also explored all of these sources and came up with what you
kindly shared from Lakota/Dakota sources but the Osage words I did not know.
There is really a derth of linguistic material, as far as I can tell, on
words for varieties of stone, clay, and mineral in Lakota and Dakota
dictionary sources. In this regard, I have been trying to track
down the term<I> icage,</I> which Walker (1983, pp. 220-221, 222-223,
227-228) gives to describe 'white fruits' growing under the earth,
suggesting the crystalline formations in caves. In Walker's literary
rendition of the Lakota genesis story,<I> Taku Skan Skan</I> made entrails
from these fruits and molded a male and a female figure (pp. 225-226). Like
the Cheyennes, the Lakotas sprinkled powdered gypsum on the ground to mark
off the altar at their Sun Dance (Densmore 1918, p. 122. The Cheyenne
sometimes refer to gypsum as "frost." Could<I> icage </I> come
from the word<I> caga</I> (Riggs 1968, p. 84; Buechel 1970, p. 113).<I>
Icage</I> means "something to make with" (Riggs (Riggs 1968, p.171; Buechel
1970, p. 199). Another and probably related word,<I> icago,</I> refers
to a mark or line that is drawn or sketched on something (Buechel, p.
199),and Buechel also gives<I> wakicaga</I> as a name for a sacred ceremony
(Buechel 1970, p. 835). </DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB> </X-TAB>Yes, yuwi'pi
are transparent stones,including the crystalline ones that ants push up from
their underground tunnels. Another word used for stones with
transparent qualities was<I> Inyan zanzan</I> in Williamson and also in one
of the texts in the Buechel collection.</DIV>
<DIV><X-TAB> </X-TAB></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 face=Georgia size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 face=Georgia
size=+1><X-TAB>
</X-TAB></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite" cite>On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Patricia Albers
wrote:<BR>> Would anyone on the listserve happen to know the Lakota
word for<BR>> gypsum, also loosely called
mica?<BR><BR>Interesting! I'd never heard of a connection in English
terminology.<BR>When you read of mica as something traded, say, within the
Hopewell<BR>Interaction Sphere (term?), which do they mean?<BR><BR>Here
are a few ideas struggling toward being a non-answer.<BR><BR>I checked in
Ingham, Buechel, and Williamson without any luck. I suspect<BR>this
simply reflects a hole in these dictionaries' coverage. (See
Osage<BR>below.)<BR><BR>The only minerals listed in Buechel (under stones)
are:<BR><BR>khaNghi't[h]ame 'black shale' (a black. smooth stone found
along the White<BR> River)<BR>wahiN ~ waNhi
'flint'<BR><BR>Yuwi'pi is defined as 'transparent stones' in the same
article, which to<BR>me suggests quartz or some other mineral at least
translucent, but I am<BR>not a student of yuwipi. I did notice
yuwi'pi was^i'c^uN 'a sacred round<BR>hard stone that is supposed to have
power in the hands of those who have<BR>dreamed' - for those who have been
following the was^i'c^uN discussion.<BR><BR>A syllable like 'me' is quite
unusual in Lakota. It reflects<BR>Proto-Mississippi Valley *W ((as
opposed to *w), which normally becomes b<BR>in Santee as depicted in Riggs
and turns up as w or m in Buechel. I don't<BR>know why sometimes m
(maybe when the underlying stem is BaN? - cf. Riggs).<BR><BR>Since Riggs
gives be 'to hatch, as fowls. Same as maN" I assume that me<BR>(mAN,
a nasal ablauting stem?) had a similar gloss at some point, but is<BR>now
moribund. It doesn't occur in Buechel - and neither does we or
maN.<BR>That suggests that khaNghi' ['crow'] tha [ALIENABLE] me {cf. be or
baN?)<BR>means something like 'crow('s) egg(s)' or 'crow('s)
hatchling(s)'.<BR><BR>The root hiN in 'flint' is pan-Siouan and tends not
to change much, except<BR>that it is sometimes hard hit by contracting and
largely hidden in<BR>compound terms for 'knife' or 'projectile
point'.<BR><BR>===<BR><BR>I found both terms in LaFlesche's Osage
Dictionary:<BR><BR>moNiN'hka ska 'gypsum' (literally 'white earth' or
'white clay')<BR><BR>iN'hkoNpa 'mica; a tumbler for drinking
water'<BR> (literally iN 'stone' + hkoNpa 'be
light, transparent')<BR> The stem hkoNpa is not
listed separately.<BR><BR>I also noticed:<BR><BR>iN'hkoNhkoNdha 'friable
rock or stone. A symbol used in rituals.'<BR><BR>===<BR><BR>Back
tracking these in Lakota, I did find in Buechel:<BR><BR>ma[n]k[h]a saN
'whitish or yellowish clay' (Vermillion is 'red clay')<BR><BR>And
then, of course, yuwi'pi is/are described as (a) transparent
stone(s).</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite" cite><BR>===<BR><BR>The Omaha Pebble Society
refers to the pebble as iN'kkugdhi 'translucent<BR>stone'. The form
kku'gdhi is cognate with Lakota khogli 'translucent,<BR>clear'.<BR><BR>I
apologize for the use of "NetSiouan" orthogaphy. I can clarify it
if<BR>you need to know more standard lettering.<BR><BR>JEK</BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>