many things

[Kathleen Shea]

Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: many things


> re: Kathy Shea's cup in Ponca as uxpe
> in UmoNhoN it is 'niudhataN'  'water holder'
> uxpe is used for plate or dish

The Poncas use uxpe for "plate, dish," too, but cup is uxpe zhiNga,
literally, "little dish."  It's good to know the Omaha word for "cup."  I
seemed to remember that it had something to do with water.

> Another example of truncation:
> shoNzhiNga 'young horse' (not shoNge zhiNga)
>
> -Ardis
>

I was going to mention this example, but, interestingly, in Ponca it means
"puppy."  Apparently, when the word shoNge shifted in Ponca from the older
meaning of "dog" to the newer one of  "horse" as the main pack animal when
horses were introduced to the plains in the 1500's, there was not a parallel
shift in meaning for the word shoNzhiNga.  But there was in Omaha.

Kathy Shea