"Hooka hey"

[Trechter, Sara]

Boas and Deloria (1941: 151) give hokahE or hukahE as 'ready! exclamation
for the start of a race or a joint effort' under their section on
exclamations.

sara

Dr. Sara Trechter
Asst. Professor Linguistics/English
CSU, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0830
(530) 898-5447 (office)
(530) 898-4450 (fax)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Koontz John E [SMTP:John.Koontz at colorado.edu]
> Sent:	Friday, July 23, 1999 12:03 PM
> To:	siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
> Subject:	"Hooka hey"
>
> It's summer and the Internet seems to be a comparatively quiet place.
> I'll venture to forward this query from Linguist, as a basis for
> discussion by anyone interested.  I've run into this question a number of
> times.  Usually the the first word of the phrase is spelled hoka, I think.
>
> I believe it's part of a longer phrase, usually rendered bilingually as
> "Hoka he(y)! Today is a good day to die!"  In English literature this is
> associated with Crazy Horse, and I suspect questions about it are
> motivated by the widespread fascination with Crazy Horse as a personality
> and historical figure.  I assume that the first part is an exclamation of
> enthusiasm, a sort of hurrah.  I don't know the accentuation.  I have not
> seen a Dakotan version of the English phrase and my Dakotan is no where
> near good enough to essay a translation.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 11:37:19 -0400
> From: LINGUIST Network <linguist at linguistlist.org>
> To: LINGUIST at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU
> Subject: 10.1118, Qs: "Hooka hey", Glides, Feature Acquisition/L2
>
> I am looking for the exact meaning of "Hooka hey!". Is it Lakota or Sioux
> based?  Any help much appreciated.
>
> Peter Boyd
> yangna at aol.com