bear, acorn

[Lance Foster]

Koontz John E wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Feb 2001, Richard L. Dieterle wrote:
>
> > I wonder if anyone can answer this: which came first, the bear or the acorn?  Is
> > the bear the "acorn-eater", or is the acorn "bear-food"?  Some material
> > (Winnebago unless otherwise stated):
> >
> > hujera                      acorn [Foster]
> > huc, huj, hunjra           acorn [Gatschet]
> > huNc                  bear [Marino-Radin, contemporary Hocak]
> > hunc                  bear [Radin]
>
> > Ofo: uthi             bear [Dorsey]
> > Biloxi: oNt'i, oNdi   bear [Dorsey]
> > Biloxi: anyaN, udi    acorn [Dorsey]
>
> I don't recall all the details, but the 'acorn' set is basically oral,
> while the '(black)bear' set is nasal.  The 'bear' set is widely replaced
> by forms meaning 'the black one' in Mississippi Valley Siouan, cf. wasabe
> in Omaha-Ponca.  The 'acorn' set is somewhat irregular.  The Omaha-Ponca
> correspondent is bu'de.  The two sets are not obviously related.
>
> JEK

Interestingly, IO is bu'je .. which is also slang for the head of the penis.. which I
guess does look like an acorn ...of course there was a trickster story that had him
putting his penis under a log to get at a chipmunk that was taunting the size of his
equipment.. the chipmunk bit off the member bit by bit, each bit becoming a different
plant, and the head became an acorn!


--
Lance Michael Foster
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