Virtues-wolves-coyotes

[Linda A Cumberland]

On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Koontz John E wrote:
>
> For what it's worth, Omaha-Ponca 'little, small, young' is z^iNga',
> cognate with c^hiNc^a.  (This is aspirated in the southerly dialects of
> Dakotan, right?)

Just to be clear, I'll confirm that the second c in c^iNca is unaspirated
in Assiniboine (a "northerly" dialect).



>   For some reason 'old woman' is wa'?uz^iNga, literally 'little
> woman', cf. English 'little old woman'.  I think this pattern occurs in
> other Siouan languages as well, and maybe areally.
>
> Interestingly, however, there are two words with s^iN'ga in what seems to
> be the same diminutive sense.  One is s^iN'gaz^iNga '(younger) children',
> cf. s^e'mi(N)z^iNga 'girl child' (a 'maid(en)' in old English usage) and
> nu'z^iNga 'boy child' (a 'youth' in old English usage).

For comparison, here are some relevant Assiniboine terms:

wakaNnana		old woman
wiNc^iNcana		girl  (literally, 'little woman' or 'little female')
but: hoks^ina		boy
c^iNca			child
mic^iNcapi		my children
but: 'taku's^kina	children (1st and 3rd syll. stress)
c^iNcana		calf; any small offspring of an animal
as in:
honog^ina c^iNcana	maggots
ptec^iNcana		buffalo calf

(and what does this imply about wiNc^iNcana?!)

Also of interest: 'thecana 'young' and wa'thecana 'to be young'

Linda