Proverbs

[Louanna Furbee]

>Regarding Sara's query:  Tojolab'al Maya has a ton of proverbs and
>admonitions. Susan Knowles-Berry did an honors paper on some of them
>for me years ago, and before that, Pierre Venture also made a
>collection (Susan augmented Pierre's collection, as I recall, in her
>data-gathering phase).  She might be interested in picking up an old
>interest.  Her address is   12618 NE 5th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98685.

Louanna






>John's original caveat when introducing this subject was that it is in some
>way 'extra-linguistic' or something like that. However, it seems also to be
>of great interest. I think that in the western stereotype occurring in
>movies, etc, there is always some scene where the Native American explains
>some obscure, wise "saying." This pop culture strategy has also been adopted
>in more modern 'native American' movies such as Pow Wow Highway, and "Smoke
>Signals." It's a representation of other cultures common in the Charlie Chan
>movies many of saw when we were younger. I do wonder if this is just
>complete western invention, or if there are some language groups that go
>heavy on the proverbs. The grammatical structure, style, and origin of
>proverbs (or lack of, however we define them) in Native North America would
>make an interesting planned session for the next SSILA when it meets with
>the AAA:New Orleans.
>
>If of any interest at all, I'm willing to be an organizer and put the word
>out.
>
>sara t
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Koontz John E [mailto:John.Koontz at colorado.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 10:29 PM
>To: 'siouan at lists.colorado.edu'
>Subject: RE: Proverbs
>
>
>On Tue, 18 Dec 2001, Trechter, Sara wrote:
>>  The metaphorical usage common with proverbs that John alludes to, is why I
>>  think the speaker went to great lengths to 'explain' an origin for the
>>  "no-napping" saying...as if he thought it was a bit obscure. Too bad I
>don't
>>  have a context for this one where the napping is metaphorical.
>
>That makes sense, and we can at least keep our eyes open for obscure
>metaphorical uses of recurring phrases, though I have the impression that
>if you go looking for metaphors in language it's hard to stop.
>
>Incidentally, the homily text is Dorsey 1890 is "Address to the Young Men"
>pp. 628-9.  The source isn't given, but it may be a sort of immitation
>composed by George Miller, who spent some time in Washington with Dorsey
>editting the texts.  The Notes section for this text reads "According to
>George Miller, an Omaha, the old men of his tribe often make such an
>address to the young men."
>
>The first sentence is:
>
>Ni'ashiNga=mashe,
>people     you the-COLLECTIVE
>
>wadha'kkigdhithaN=i      nu'de  ttaghu'gh[e]
>you work for yourselves  throat panting
>
>udhi'zhi=xti= kki=naN,
>you fill very if  ONLY
>
>e=da'=daN wiN dhakki'shkaghe=       tta=i  ha!
>what      a   you make for yourself FUTURE DECL
>
>"Oh ye people, if you ever accomplish anything for yourselves it will be
>only when you work so hard for yourselves that you pant incessantly
>thereafter."  (Dorsey et al.'s free translation.)
>
>The essential framework here is "You will [irrealis!] make something for
>yourselves, if you only [i.e., exclusively, habitually] work [handle
>things] for yourself."  The "you very much fill your throat with panting"
>is essentially an adverbial phrase of manner inserted in the conditional
>clause between the verb and the final conjunction, a fairly common pattern
>in Omaha-Ponca.
>
>The word ttaghu'gh, presumably ttaghu'ghe contracted with the following
>verb, is not the usual word for panting, which is gaski'.  It's not even
>translated in the interlinear version, but corresponds to panting in the
>free translation.
>
>I'm not sure if this is a proverb, or just rhetorical style.  The phrase
>that recurs in the texts comes a few sentences later, and it's the
>imperative washkaN=i=ga, here given as "Try!" in the interlinear and as
>"Do your best!" in the free translation.  Elsewhere it is often "Be
>active!" or "Make an effort!"

--
Prof. N. Louanna Furbee
Department of Anthropology
107 Swallow Hall
University of Missouri
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E-mail:  FurbeeL at missouri.edu