Verb "To swim"

[Lance Foster]

WOW John..thanks! :)

from that I take it for IO:

nyiwaN' = "to swim"
hi'ra = "to bathe" (oldest form due to similarity to OP forms)
pira/pitha/pidha (var. forms derived from hira)

Lance

Koontz John E wrote:

> On Wed, 2 May 2001, Lance Foster wrote:
> > I'm looking at some comparisons/usage of the verb "to swim".
> >
> > In his dictionary JGT has:
> >
> > to swim: nyiwan; nyinwan; hira
> > to bathe: pidha; pitha; hira; pira
> > hira/pira "to take a bath"
> >
> > Any thoughts on usages distinctions in comparison with other Siouan
> > languages?
>
> I thought for once I'd look first and answer second.
>
> Omaha-Ponca has:
>
> hi=dha'  (Pop Orth:  hitha<accent>) 'to bathe' The second syllable accent
> seems to be anomalous, which may suggest interesting length issues.
>
> niN'=uwaN (Pop. Orth:  niNuwoN) 'to swim' (Swetland), and niN=(w)aN
> (Dorsey) The w might be epenthetic or a reduction of the u.
>
> Both of these more or less closely resemble the IO forms, except the pi (=
> phi?) alternative, which may be influenced by phi 'good'.
>
> And, since knowing the stem is only a small part of the battle, I looked
> into the inflection of these.
>
> I believe hi=dha' is doubly inflected:  ahi'=bdha, dhahi'=na, hi=dha'(=i),
> aNhi'=dha(=i), deduced from the following derivative's first upon third
> personal form, and consistent with the Osage pattern (in OP form) given by
> LaFlesche.  (Osage has dhe 'to go' appended, too, so it is triply
> inflected.)
>
> A derivative is i'=hi=dha 'to bathe by means of', e.g., 'to bathe by means
> of the rocks used in a sweatbath'.  This is idha'hi=bdha, i'dhahi=na,
> etc., cf. i'wihi=bdha 'I will bathe by means of you' addressed to the
> stones.
>
> Another derivative is hidha'=khidhe 'to cause to bathe'.
>
> And we might mention hi=dha'=i 'Saturday' or 'bath night', lit. 'they
> bathe'.
>
> Actually, the word for '(to take a) sweat bath' is iN=u'ppe, which looks
> like it might be 'to crawl into stone(s)'.  The inflection seems to be
> iN=u'(w)appe, iN=u'dhappe, iN=u'ppe, iN=aN'waNppe, deduced from the third
> and first persons.
>
> The inflection of niN'=waN in Dorsey is obscure, as he provides only
> niN'=aNwaN 'we swam' in text.  Unfortunately I can't check his slip file
> without a major expedition yet.  So this could perhaps be:  niN'=maN,
> niN'=z^aN, ..., or niN'=awaN, niN'=dhawaN, etc.  It's also not clear if
> the -w- and/or -uw- are epenthetic w before aN or reflect u- 'in' or a
> stem waN or what.  It's possible that both uwaN or u(w)aN and waN or aN
> are reflected, i.e., 'to swim in' and 'to swim'.  What LaFlesche gives for
> Osage is aniN'=moN, dhaniN'=moN, niN'=moN, oNniN'=moN, which is a
> prefixing pattern, contrary to the OP inclusive in Dorsey's texts.
>
> Winnebago has niNiNp, inflected prefixally, which doesn't fit the set
> easily, though a similar waffling between *w and *p afflicts the 'to
> see/watch' set, which is tuNwaN in Dakotan and *toNpe in Dhegiha.
> Winnebago does have, however, niNiN=waN' 'to paddle', inflected
> niN=aNwaN', etc., i.e., niN=n^a'waN (?), niN=iN'waN= (?), etc., which more
> or less fits the pattern.
>
> Dakotan nuNwaN' is inflected prefixally:  wanuNwaN, etc..  Across the
> Missouri from Decatur, NE, lies Onawa, IA, which presumably reflects
> Dakotan onuN'waN 'to swim in'.
>
> It looks like some sort of cline from niN(w)aN to nuNwaN exists for the
> 'swim' set, at least potentially analyzable as niN=(w)aN or n(iN)=o(w)aN,
> but maybe not.  In general we expect Siouan verbs to develop from infixing
> patterns to prefixing patterns, via various interesting intermediate
> possibilities, if they don't start and remain prefixing, but I wouldn't
> care to guarantee the reverse never occurs.  Still, it does look, from the
> OP and Wi (paddle) forms as if this stem may originally have been
> infixing, which tends to support the assumption that the first part of the
> stem is n(iN) 'water'.  However, awkwardly, Dakotan doesn't attest niN
> like the other languages, but mniN, reflecting original *wriN or *priN
> (which I like for Proto-Mississippi Valley), and this stem has #n, not #mn
> in Dakotan.  It might be borrowed, but that seems awkward with a verb like
> 'swim' in the absence of evidence of pervasive borrowing.
>
> Incidentally, Santee has yuz^a'z^a and spaye'ya for 'to bathe'.  Teton
> makes the first of these 'to wash clothes' and the second 'to cause to be
> wet'.  OP has kkigdhi'z^a 'to clean oneself', which seems to involve the
> same root as the first.  OP and Osage have a root -sihi that seems to
> involve ritual or metaphorical cleanness.
>
> It looks from the IO, OP, Osage, etc., definitions and cross references as
> if the Mississippi Valley Siouan languages employ some of the same
> metaphors and ambiguities as English with bathing, swimming, cleaning,
> etc.

--
Lance Michael Foster
Email: ioway at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~ioway
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