Sacred Syllable

[Richard L. Dieterle]

With respect to Omaha ku, in Wi Marino-Radin has ko, meaning, "to look out for,
make a place for," and kox, "to help, assist."  We also have kog / kok, meaning
"box, etc."  Besides k'o, "thunder," there is kox, "screetching (of birds)," and
the Bird Clan name, KoxmaniNga, "Walking while Making Kox."

I now find in Miner the word goo, meaning, "to give a religious feast; (with
object) to invite to a religious feast."

It may well be that gu is not Siouan at all, but Algonquin.  It would seem to be
an internationally understood expression, which makes it less likely that it is
just Wi. Apart from the three stories that mention it, I had never heard of any
such practice anywhere.

Responding to the message of
<5823BD992D67D3119F630008C7CF50FC0A441487 at skylark.mail.ukans.edu>
from siouan at lists.colorado.edu:
>
>
> > ... Omaha text where the earth says 'ku'' as it brings forth
> > some rocks.
>
> ORdinarily this couldn't be related to Winnebago /gu/ since Omaha /u/ is
> invariably from /o/ (and actually pronounced [o] about half the time in my
> Omaha notes from ca. 1973). Nor can Winnebago /g/ be related to Omaha <k>
> (/kk/), only to Omaha /g/. So the Omaha reflex for the WI sacred syllable
> ought to be /gi/ if no sound symbolism is involved. I haven't run across
> anything suggestive in my own work, sorry to say.
>
> In this particular term though, I think probably <ku> is the standard root
> for 'make a hollow sound' that is found in 'drum, box, cucurbit, etc. Kind
> of makes sense that the earth might rumble when coughing up rocks. Winnebago
> should have /ko-/ for that root.
>
> Bob
>
> .