Siouan "khagha" ~ "ichagha"

[R. Rankin]

Re: gypsum or "mica"This verb apparently meant 'make marks' originally.  In the Mississippi Valley Siouan languages it has been generalized to 'make' in the modern languages.  The older, common Siouan verb 'make, so' is/was ?uN.  

Sorry I can't help with the mineral terms.  It is a real problem for all of us that cultural vocabulary has not been collected in sufficient detail in most Siouan languages.  In a few instances, such as ethnobotany, talented scientists of particular disciplines (in this case botany) have visited communities and collected a good many more terms than linguists did.  I haven't heard of any mineralogists who have done that however.  

Bob

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Patricia Albers 
  To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu 
  Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 12:21 PM
  Subject: Re: gypsum or "mica"




  I have also explored all of these sources and came up with what you kindly shared from Lakota/Dakota sources but the Osage words I did not know. There is really a derth of linguistic material, as far as I can tell, on words for varieties of stone, clay, and mineral in Lakota and Dakota dictionary sources. In this regard,  I have  been trying to track down the term icage, which Walker (1983, pp. 220-221, 222-223, 227-228) gives to describe 'white fruits' growing under the earth, suggesting the crystalline formations in caves. In Walker's literary rendition of the Lakota genesis story, Taku Skan Skan made entrails from these fruits and molded a male and a female figure (pp. 225-226). Like the Cheyennes, the Lakotas sprinkled powdered gypsum on the ground to mark off the altar at their Sun Dance (Densmore 1918, p. 122. The Cheyenne sometimes refer to gypsum as "frost."  Could icage  come from the word caga (Riggs 1968, p. 84; Buechel 1970, p. 113). Icage means "something to make with" (Riggs (Riggs 1968, p.171; Buechel 1970, p. 199).  Another and probably related word, icago, refers to a mark or line that is drawn or sketched on something (Buechel, p. 199),and Buechel also gives wakicaga as a name for a sacred ceremony (Buechel 1970, p. 835). 
          Yes, yuwi'pi are transparent stones,including the crystalline ones that ants push up from their underground tunnels.  Another word used for stones with transparent qualities was Inyan zanzan in Williamson and also in one of the texts in the Buechel collection.
          


          


    On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Patricia Albers wrote:
    > Would anyone on the listserve happen to know the Lakota word for
    > gypsum, also loosely called mica?

    Interesting!  I'd never heard of a connection in English terminology.
    When you read of mica as something traded, say, within the Hopewell
    Interaction Sphere (term?), which do they mean?

    Here are a few ideas struggling toward being a non-answer.

    I checked in Ingham, Buechel, and Williamson without any luck.  I suspect
    this simply reflects a hole in these dictionaries' coverage.  (See Osage
    below.)

    The only minerals listed in Buechel (under stones) are:

    khaNghi't[h]ame 'black shale' (a black. smooth stone found along the White
         River)
    wahiN ~ waNhi 'flint'

    Yuwi'pi is defined as 'transparent stones' in the same article, which to
    me suggests quartz or some other mineral at least translucent, but I am
    not a student of yuwipi.  I did notice yuwi'pi was^i'c^uN 'a sacred round
    hard stone that is supposed to have power in the hands of those who have
    dreamed' - for those who have been following the was^i'c^uN discussion.

    A syllable like 'me' is quite unusual in Lakota.  It reflects
    Proto-Mississippi Valley *W ((as opposed to *w), which normally becomes b
    in Santee as depicted in Riggs and turns up as w or m in Buechel.  I don't
    know why sometimes m (maybe when the underlying stem is BaN? - cf. Riggs).

    Since Riggs gives be 'to hatch, as fowls.  Same as maN" I assume that me
    (mAN, a nasal ablauting stem?) had a similar gloss at some point, but is
    now moribund.  It doesn't occur in Buechel - and neither does we or maN.
    That suggests that khaNghi' ['crow'] tha [ALIENABLE] me {cf. be or baN?)
    means something like 'crow('s) egg(s)' or 'crow('s) hatchling(s)'.

    The root hiN in 'flint' is pan-Siouan and tends not to change much, except
    that it is sometimes hard hit by contracting and largely hidden in
    compound terms for 'knife' or 'projectile point'.

    ===

    I found both terms in LaFlesche's Osage Dictionary:

    moNiN'hka ska 'gypsum' (literally 'white earth' or 'white clay')

    iN'hkoNpa 'mica; a tumbler for drinking water'
         (literally iN 'stone' + hkoNpa 'be light, transparent')
         The stem hkoNpa is not listed separately.

    I also noticed:

    iN'hkoNhkoNdha 'friable rock or stone.  A symbol used in rituals.'

    ===

    Back tracking these in Lakota, I did find in Buechel:

    ma[n]k[h]a saN 'whitish or yellowish clay'  (Vermillion is 'red clay')

    And then, of course, yuwi'pi is/are described as (a) transparent stone(s).

    ===

    The Omaha Pebble Society refers to the pebble as iN'kkugdhi 'translucent
    stone'.  The form kku'gdhi is cognate with Lakota khogli 'translucent,
    clear'.

    I apologize for the use of "NetSiouan" orthogaphy.  I can clarify it if
    you need to know more standard lettering.

    JEK


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