U.S. President and cloud/sky: more.

[Lance Foster]

RLR wrote:

>
>
> And re 'sky, cloud(s)':
>
> Quapaw has maNghe 'sky'; moxpi 'cloud(s)'
>
> Kansa has maNghe 'sky, "the upper world"' and maxpu" or moxpu"
> 'cloud(s)'.
>
> All of this leads me to speculate that the mysterious Chiwere form for
> 'sky', maNghu, is from earlier *maNxwu, which would be the outcome in
> Chiwere of the same form that gives Kansa/Osage maNxpu". My recollection
> is that the p > w in this context in CH. This would give Quapaw and
> Omaha-Ponca maNxpi regularly, leaving only the Dakotan /i/ unexplained.
>
> Bob
> ******************************************

The Iowa chiefs Mahaska, White Cloud, was spelled historically different
ways. Together these ways (ex: Monhaska, Monhashka, Mahaska, Mahaskan, JGT
Maxu(we)=xga) can reveal some things.

As Marsh/Whitman noted, "s" (?Prepalatal sibilant) was changing to
(alveolar) "sh".. and JGT noted that even more recently in some family
dialects, the s/sh was being realized as "x". Thus JGT has "xga" as
"white", but earlier forms were ska/shka, very much like Om/Dak (again
correct me if I am off base).

Maha = Maxa.. I notice that in endings, often there was variation in
realization between "ah" and "eh" and "uh". And English-speakers often
ignored nasalization. I think the way it would have been said in the 1830s
was something like MaNxa=shka "cloud/cloudy sky/sky"+"white".

IO does have another term, kera/kela (I am still deciding whether to go
with l or r in my presentation to the learner and I think JGT goes back and
forth too), which is glossed "the clear blue sky (at dawn)", a Bear Clan
name. "To" is blue, so kela has more to do with clarity.. although for
water (and for thinking), bredhe is "clear."

IO "maNshi" is high, as in ahemaN'shi = ahe "hill" + maN'shi "high" =
mountain. But maN'shi also is related to maNgri(da), "above (as in the
sky).

Lance


--
Lance Michael Foster
Email: ioway at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~ioway
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