More bears.

RLR rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu
Wed Feb 28 18:41:19 UTC 2001


Eric has come up with a lot more evidence for the taboo status of 'bear'
among Siouan speakers. Several nice euphemisms here.  And it looks to me
as though the s^ake'hute term with the translation 'root nose' probably
involved folk etymology on the part of speakers again. It is true that
hu'te is 'stump, base of a tree, etc.' but it is also 'blackbear' as we
have seen in many related languages. Folk reanalysis of hute as 'stump'
might account for the missing nasalization in Dakotan though.  We would
expect Dakotan huN'te 'bear'.  The term is missing from Buechel under H
but can be found under S^ on page 460 without an explicit translation.

Bob

Erik D. Gooding wrote:

> Other Dakotan Bear terms:
> Santee-Sisseton
> wah^?aNksica 'black bear'
> s^ake'haNska 'long claws'/grizzly
> s^ake'hute 'root nose'
>
> Yankton-Yanktonai
> wah^aNks^ica 'black bear'
> s^akehute 'grizzly'
>
> Assiniboine
> wah^?aNsicaskana 'White Bear'/grizzly
> wacHuwiska 'white sided/grizzly
> owes^icapi 'bad kind'
> wamaNkamani 'earth walker'
> makHuska 'white chest'
>
> Stoney
> wasabe 'black animal'
> oz^iNz^a 'blows through the nose'
>
> these were from Parks and DeMallie (1994 AAA talk handout)
>
> I got oz^iNz^a 'blows through the nose' for Stoney 'bear' at both Alexis
> and Morley
>



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