U.S. President

[ROOD DAVID S]

  Lakhota also uses 'his/her grandfather' (thuNkas^ila) -- but that term
is also used for the head of other kinds of organizations or groups.
The word "thunkas^silapi", lit. 'their grandfather(s)' is used for the
US government, though one source also glosses it as 'elders".  Normally,
-pi pluralizes the possessor, not the possessed.
	If you're curious, Wichita for 'president' (i':ri7asiwa:c7A)
translates 'Big Chief'. Is that because Wichita is not Siouan, or because
they're in the Southern plains?
	DAvid

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
Campus Box 295
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Wed, 14 Feb 2001 Rgraczyk at aol.com wrote:

> A query: what is the word for 'U.S. President' in your Siouan language?  Crow
> has baa-iila'pxisaahka and Hidatsa has maa-a'arutaahka (in both lgs,
> indefinite prefix + grandfather).  Is this perhaps a pan-Plains phenomenon?
>
> Randy
>