Sky and cloud

[Lance Foster]

IO is bikax?e

bi = wi (bi = sun/light/moon)
so I can see kax?e relates to chah?pi but could it relate to bika-  hmm I don't
know.

However our IO stories do relate that the stars represent the campfires of the
dead in wanaxi china (ghost+village) or wanaxi nawo (ghost+road) aka The Milky
Way.

And the father of the Holy Twins did go to live in Bikax?e Manyiskunyi,
Star-Moves/Walks-Not, "the Star that does not move", aka the North Star.

I find it interesting that many Native stories do not follow the popular notion
that the Sun is male and the Moon is female (in IO the terms are the same, Bi)
...in IO the Twin Holy Boys, after they left Earth, one went into the Sun and
the other into the Moon (while the father went into the North Star). But in IO
the Earth is female.

Lance

Bruce Ingham wrote:

> Thank you for all the replies re cloud and sky.  It is fascinating to see
>  all these reflexes indifferent Siouan languages.  Incidentally Blair's
> reply mentions 'stars'.  In Lakota the word for 'star' is wichah^pi .
> Normally the prefix wicha- refers to animate plurals.  Does anyone
> know why it turns up in the word for star?  Is it from some other
> earlier use or some other morph.  Does the wicha- occur in any
> other Siouan reflexes for 'star'.  It is tempting to think of it as having
> something to do with spirits of the dead, but I'm sure that's far-
> fetched.
>
> Bruce
>
> Date sent:              Sat, 17 Feb 2001 21:16:18 EST
> Send reply to:          siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> From:                   BARudes at aol.com
> To:                     siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> Subject:                Re: Sky and cloud
>
> Catawba has distinct words for sky and cloud.  The word for cloud is namuN?
> (with accent on the /uN/) and the word for sky is wa:pit (with accent on the
> /a:/).  However, the English glosses do not fit well.  The word for cloud is
> often used for heaven and the lower levels of the sky in narratives, and the
> word for sky occurs in compounds for celestial objects (e.g., wa:pidnu  star
> [with accent on the /i/).  The distinction seems to be one of upper versus
> lower sky, or bounded versus unbounded sky.  The Catawba word for sky may
> show metathesis, since the Woccon word for sun is Wittapare (i.e.
> /wita:pire:/  it is the sky).
>
> Blair
>
> Dr. Bruce Ingham
> Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies
> SOAS

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