More bears.

[Kathleen Shea]

It seems that Omaha and Ponca diverge quite often when it comes to recent
vocabulary.  For instance, I noticed the word for "cup" in Ponca, uxpe'
z^i~ga (uxpe' zhiNga), lit. "little dish," is different from the Omaha one,
which I can't remember.  the words for "car," "teacher," "student," and
"school" are all different, too.  Anyway, as far as wild, extinct,
mythological, or foreign animals go, I've elicited some terms (shown here in
parentheses in the accepted practical orthography) from two Ponca elders,
both in their late 80's:

"elephant"        wakka~'da ppasne'de (wakaN'da pasne'de)  --PW says this
was also used for mastadons and mammoths,                             and
means literally "god with a long nose."

                        ttibaxi'adha (tibaxi'atha)  --BL recalls this term
for "elephant," which is like the Omaha.

"lion"                ppa'tta hi~s^kube (pa'ta hiNshkube)  --PW, lit., "in
front he's hairy"; "full beard"

"mountain lion, puma, cougar"        i~gdha~' / i~gdha~'ga (iNgtha' /
iNgthaN'ga)  --PW sometimes adds ma~'tta~na~ha~
(maN'taNnaNhaN) "wild" after this.  He calls a housecat ppu'si (pu'si) but
says that his
grandparents' generation had the terms reversed:  They used ppu'si (pu'si)
or ppu'si
ma~'tta~na~ha~ (pu'si maN'taNnaNhaN) for "mountain lion" and i~gdha~'
(iNgthaN') for
"housecat."  He also says that the older generation considered cats in
general to be
important, sacred.  He says the word for "thunder," i~gdha~' hu'tta~
(iNgthaN' hu'taN) is
connected in meaning and interprets it as literally "cat hollering."

                                                    i~gdha~ga
iNgthaNga)  --BL says this word can be used for all cats, including lions.

"monkey"            is^tti'ni~khe (ishti'niNkHe)  --PW and BL both gave this
term for "monkey," but he's also the "trickster" in
Ponca stories.  PW explained the name by saying that the monkey imitates
human beings, and that the name                             comes from
is^te'ga~dhi~kheega~ (ishte'gaNthiNkHeegaN) "something similar to us (human
beings)," from                             is^te' (ishte') "something
similar," according to PW.

"walrus"                wakka~'dagi (wakaN'dagi)  --PW says that this comes
from wakka~'dagi'dhe (wakaN'dagi'the) "he made
himself as a god."  These water monsters feature in the story, or hi'ga~
(hi'gaN), that PW told me about the                             boy who was
made into a door.  At the time he was telling me the story, he said, "We
just call them                                         'walruses.'"

"bigfoot"                nia's^iga ma~tta~na~ha~ (nia'shiga maNtaNnaNhaN),
lit., "wild man"  --PW

"giraffe," "hippo," "whale," "badger"  --Neither PW or BL could think of
words for these.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Awakuni-Swetland" <mawakuni-swetland2 at unl.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 7:18 AM
Subject: Re: More bears.


> 01 March 2001
>
> The Stabler lexicon glosses
>
> lion             wanita waxa        greater animal  (1977:113)
>
> elephant    tibaxiatha            push over house, referring to its
strength
> (1977:67),
>                                                 as taken from Fletcher and
> La Flesche (1911:103)
>
> giraffe        pasiata wathate    (1977:85)
>
>
> A couple years ago elders at the UmoNhoN Nation Public Schools had
provided
> a term for hippo, but I've momentarily misplaced it.
>
> Sorry, no tigers in Omaha country... although niashiNga hiNshkube (hairy
> man/bigfoot) has been sited recently.
>
> uthixide
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koontz John E <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
> To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:24 PM
> Subject: Re: More bears.
>
>
> >On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, RLR wrote:
> >
> >> > What about lions and tigers? (that's me playing the straight man for
> >> > someone else)
> >>
> >> Hmm, good question. All I know is 'elephant' in Kaw, which is wakkaNda
> >> xoje-ttaNga 'great gray god'.
> >
> >Omaha has nitta ttaNga 'big beast' for 'lion'.
> >
> >JEK