[Lexicog] Digest Number 193

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Jimm GoodTracks wrote:

> Perhaps I can comment a bit as it relates to Baxoje-Jiwere
> (Ioway-Otoe~Missouria), a Siouan language of the Southern plains.
>   I have to wonder if you are not attempting to anticipate a European
> societal etiquette onto other very different culture(s).  Certainly this
> adaptation occurrs during cultural contacts; however, I would not
> anticipate that the full expression and expected European replies to be
> returned from another culture.  For example, for many tribal communities
> of the Southern Plains, "Thank You" may be expressed by a simple
> handshake (a learned non-Native custom), by a simple "Ho!", an embrace,
> or by quiet tears.  And there is no "Your welcome" afterwards.  If one
> is extremely grateful, one says:  "Wari'groxi(wi) ke" -- I pray for you
> (plural).  And again, in another expression -- "We'nawinna(wi) ke" --
> you cause me to be grateful;  or again, one would hear:
> "Nat?un'hinnadan ke" -- You have pitied me.
...

Jimm raises the point I was wondering about, which is whether a lack of
formal phrases for particular cultural circumstances was really the same
thing as a lack of honorifics, or again as a lack of polite forms of
speech (register), etc.

It is true that students of eastern North America notice a lack of fixed
equivalents to some fixed phrases that English speakers consider
absolutely essential.  But these societies vary quite a bit in their
degree of egalitarianism, at least historically, and I think most if not
all have a range of registers.

I don't think I've seen much on terms of address and their implications
for the area, but I know that (Siouan) Omaha-Ponca has a range of
possibilities covering kinship, names, roles/ranks, and different vocative
particles.  This is a language in which it is difficult to elicit ways to
say "Good bye" or "You're welcome," though there are various ranked
possibilities for "Thank you."  The range of variation in greetings is
mostly controlled by the sex of the speaker and addressee (with holes in
the pattern) and the female speaker forms looks like a calque from English
("How are you?").

The Ioway-Otoe system is pretty similar seeming as Jimm describes it here
and elsewhere, and Jimm clearly knows it better than I know the
Omaha-Ponca one.

Honorifics are a bit harder to pin down in Siouan, but there is an
enclitic particle iN (nasal i) that is often attached to the names of
characters in traditional myths in Omaha-Ponca.  Something similar occurs
with =ga 'yon' in Winnebago, which is closely related to Ioway-Otoe.  It
occurs in sources with the name of the character Rabbit (as opposed to
'rabbit'), with terms for "Store-Keeper," and with certain possessive
forms of certain terms for senior kin in ego's patriline.

So, honorifics in nominal references and presumably respect-moderated
variation in terms of address appear to co-occur with "lack of polite
phrases considered essential in English" in (roughly) eastern North
America.  Eastern NA includes of course many Plains groups displaced into
the Plains in historical times, though, contrary to popular perception,
most of the Plains were well settled before contact and most displacements
were fairly local or at best regional.  (The Delaware are a good
counterexample, of course!)



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