Sky and clouds

[Erik D. Gooding]

There is a Lakota ritual expression, that means something like "on a
cloudless day". It escapes me at the moment. It is a pre-Christian
expression. I'll dig around to see if I can find it, unless anyone else has
it at hand.

Erik



At 03:35 PM 02/14/2001 +0000, Bruce Ingham wrote:
>Dear Siouanists
>Something has been at the back of my mind for years.  In Lakota the word
> given in dictionaries and elsewhere for 'sky', 'cloud' and 'heaven' is
>mah^piya.
>Sometimes also in Lakota prayers the equivalent for 'heaven' or 'sky' is
>waNkatuya or WaNkal  literally 'up there, high up'.  Therefore I wonder
>how to say such a thing as 'there are no clouds in the sky' .  There is a
verb
>  kaska iyaya 'to clear (of clouds in the sky)' and one sees sentences
> like, I think,  mah^piya ska wan woslal he 'a white cloud stood vertically
> (in front of them)'.  Any ideas.  Is this the same in other Siouan languages.
>
>Bruce
>
>
>
>Dr. Bruce Ingham
>Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies
>SOAS