[Fwd: poison ivy]

[RLR]

 From the SSILA Newsletter:
-------- Original Message --------
I am writing a popular article on poison ivy and poison oak and I would
like to provide a list of a few Native American names for these plants.
I need to know the words and what the phrase or word means. Any assis-
tance readers of the SSILA Bulletin can give would be greatly appreciated.

--Spencer Tomb
Kansas State University
(astomb at ksu.edu)


In the interests of fostering good relations between the KU Jayhawks and
the Purple Pussies of Kansas Straight University, I checked out 'poison
ivy' in the several Siouan language dictionaries in my computer. Those
of you reading this on the Siouan Listserv might be willing to
contribute the relevant terms to his study. He is not a list member, so
using his email address, above, will get the info to him.

Kansa, sometimes called Kaw, the Siouan language formerly spoken along
the Kansas River in eastern KS, used the compound "mahin-ppizhi" for
poison ivy, where "mahin" is the term normally used for grass or weeds
and "ppizhi" is the verb 'to be bad'. This is from my field notes on the
language.

Winnebago, a Siouan language originally spoken in E. central Wisconsin,
now spoken in central Wisc. and in NE Nebraska, uses the term
"xa~a~win-shishik" where the letter "x" is a gutteral fricative like
German "ch" and the tildes (~) should be written on top of the preceding
"a" vowels to indicate nasalization. "Xa~a~win" is also 'grass' and
"shik" is 'to be bad'. So the compound has essentially the same meaning
as the Kaw one did, but the words used are different. The initial
syllable of shik 'to be bad' has been reduplicated in 'poison ivy' for
semantic effect. This term is taken from the "Winnebago Field Lexicon"
by Kenneth Miner, MS, 1984.

Good luck with other terms.  I have no separate terms for poison
oak/sumac -- just ivy.

Bob Rankin
Professor of Linguistics
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045-2140