... Word for "Family" ...

[Koontz John E]

> > > 2. Chuyu (could this be 'household'? fr. Chi 'house' + uyu
> > 'to live in')
> > Cf. Omaha-Ponca ttiz^u 'household', I think.
>
> Hmm, that certainly seems to be related to Kansa chiz^o, which is a moiety
> name according to Dorsey. I once recorded this, but with an aspirated ch.
> But it may be derived from 'house', in which case it shouldn't have the
> aspiration. I wonder if one or the other involves folk etymology or if my
> ears just failed me?

For Osage LaFlesche's Osage Dictionary lists "ts.i'zhu" cci'z^o (cciz^u?)
in connection with three clans, c^hi'z^o odhohage 'last c.', c^hi'z^o
wanoN 'elder c.', and c^hi'z^o was^take 'gentle c.'

For Osage Dorsey's Siouan Sociology lists "Tsic.u" Chiz^u as one of the
three major subdivisions (moieties?) of the Osage.  Some of the clans in
that division use the term in their names.  (Basically the ones LaFlesche
mentions.)

For Kaw Dorsey idem lists "Tci ju wactage" C^hiz^u was^tage 'peaceful c.'
as one of the Kaw clans.

For Ponca Dorsey idem lists "tciNju" chiNz^u as one of the two moieties or
half-tribes of the Ponca.

For Quapaw Dorsey idem seems to indicate that there were remembered c.
1894 at least three, perhaps four divisions, each with from one to five
remaining clans.  One of the clans with an uncertain affiliation was
"Ti'ju" Thiz^u, meaning unknown.

Dorsey explicitly remarks that he got no translation for the Quapaw
version, and seems to have gotten none for the others, so that he uses the
word to translate itself.

These terms seem to suggest thiz^u, usually diminutivized (?) to c^hiz^u
or chiz^u (c^ = ts^; c = ts).  I assume Ponca nasalization is secondary.
I take it that Bob's ear can be trusted on aspiration (as well as lots of
other things), and I assume that LaFlesche was simply off in his
transcription of the word.  I've noticed he was a bit wobbly on aspiration
of ch (ts-aspirated) in some other cases, though it's hard to tell with a
dot-diacritic when the problem isn't one of editing.  After all, his Osage
dicitonary manuscript was published postumously and he never got to
proofread it.

Omaha has tti'-uz^i 'household' in Dorsey's texts.  LaFlesche gives
"ts.i'-wazhi," perhaps for cci'-waz^u, for 'household' in Osage.  This
would appear to be the term corresponding to IO "chuyu," probably
underlyingly something like c^h(i)-oyu or c^h(i)-uyu.  (Note that I'm
offering standardized "Net Siouan"  transcriptions here, not trying to
suggest any particular IO orthography.)

I have to confess that I associated these two (sets of) terms before this,
but I appear to have been misled.  The *thiz^u term seems to be associated
with moieties, clans, and divisions whose function is making peace and
saving the lives of captives and suppliants.  They are opposed to the
HaNga (~ haNka, etc.) clans/divisions whose functions include war.

Incidentally, I've noticed that Omaha-Ponca doesn't seem to have any term
for moiety.  There is a term for the two moieties collectively. The
terminology for clan is more or less homophonous with the terminology for
village, too, which is something of an areal feature, i.e., I think it is
true in Pawnee, too.

In spite of the tendency on my part to term the higher-level divisons
moieties, there are often more than two, especially three, of them.  In
the past I have wondered if this might be explained by mergers of separate
village organizations in which two of the original halves had different
names, resulting in three halves, as it were.  However, three is so
regularly the alternative to two, and the names tend to be similar, making
me wonder if three might not be the norm.

The Omaha and Ponca are the most notable exceptions, though the original
organization of the Quapaw is none too clear.  It seems reasonable to
interpret the Ponca as a bit unusual mainly due to having been extracted
somehow from the original Omaha-Ponca unity.  Among the Omaha the
'Left-Hand Side' Clan is especially large and well-developed in its
internal organization, so that it might be taken as a third division. (Or
some incorporated tribelet.)

In fact, the breakdown into three is usually such that two of the
divisions are on one side of the tribal circle of hudhuga (OP term)  as
allied haNga divisions, opposite the *thiz^u or is^tUnga (Kaw) or
is^ta-saNda (Omaha) division, which happens to accord with the location of
Left-Hand Side, too, on the south, next, in fact, to the HaNga clan.
And, interestingly, the Kaw call the HaNga division Yat(t)a 'Left'.

One more sociological note:  in skimming Siouan Sociology I was also
struck by the Osage office of s^okka, which seems to have something in
common with that of vizier.  I wondered if it might be some sort of
Mississippian holdover.