Lakota names

[Bruce Ingham]

re Bob's point about Lakota names and their often descriptive nature, that is
an interesting point about them having moved into a new area with
different flora and fauna.  I'm sure that is much like the other case
of having to deal with new objects which a foreign group have
brought in, like the Lakota use of maza 'iron' or wakhaN
'mysterious' as a component of their names for many was^icu
items.  I sometimes wonder about a parallel point with regard to
Lakota which is that so many of their words are morphologically
analyzable into components which still have a meaning and can be
thought to contribute to the new item.
 Things like chegnake 'loin cloth' (che 'loins', gnaka 'put'),
chuwignaka 'woman's dress' (che ditto ?, wi 'fem?, gnaka 'put'),
chaNksa 'club'  (chaN 'wood', ksa 'break'), hanpos^pu 'doll' .  One
would think that clothes, clubs and dolls would be old in the culture
yet they have morphologically analyzable names.
	It may just be that as Bob says, some languages do it that
way.Maybe these have replaced earlier monomorphemic elements.
 Maybe they were originally picturesque epithets, but then became
the main  words. Do these correspond to similar things in other
Siouan languages? This is a thing I've often wondered about.
	 I leave it with you over there on the other side of the
Atlantic.  I'm going home for dinner.  Have a nice day.

Bruce
	
Dr. Bruce Ingham
Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies
SOAS