sky, clouds

[Richard L. Dieterle]

Here are some forms from Winnebago:

maNxi, sky, clouds, heaven, air
maNghira, the sky [Tiver-Radin]
maxi wange'ja, heaven, sky ("sky above") [Gatschet]

The following forms are interesting because -wi also happens to be the plural
suffix:

maxiwi,	cloud, clouded sky [Gatschet]
maxiwi, ka-a	that cloud [Gatschet]
maxiwi nige,	"piece of cloud" (lit., "cloud  forming") [Gatschet]
maNxiwi,	cloud [Radin-Marino]
maxiwixiwi,	cloudy [Gatschet]
MaNxiwimaniga,	He who Walks in the Cloud, a personal name in the Bird Clan
[Radin]
MaNxiwiwak'anjaNk'a,	Sacred Cloud, a personal name in the Bird Clan [Radin]

The Winnebago also have another word for cloud that also seems to mean "sky":

ke(ra), (the) cloud [Radin-Marino]
K'eratcosepga,	Black Sky (the firmament), a personal name in the Bird Clan
[Radin]

The last seems to come from k'era, "the sky," tco, "blue," and sep, "black,"
with -ga indicating a personal name.

Sometimes the sky is denoted in the following way:

tcora,	sky ("the blue") [Radin-Marino]