Virtues-wolves-coyotes

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 26 Aug 2002 rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu wrote:
> John wrote: > Nikka refers to 'people' and > occurs in compounds, like
> these and nikkagahi 'chief'.  Nia's^iNga is an > puzzling variant of
> ni'kkas^iNga that I think I've mentioned before.
>
> I wonder if dropping the /kk/ in this word isn't just
> a rapid-speech slurring that is becoming a secondary
> standard because four full syllables is too long for
> a word that just means 'person' or 'people'.  I've
> heard the word reduced even further in a compound by
> one of our speakers, Emmaline Sanchez, to what sounds
> like /ne'os^iN/ (the 'o' being perhaps more of a shwa):

I wondered about fast speech and contraction, but elision usually affects
dh and simple stops, not the tense series.  Also, this variation is
attested in Dorsey's materials from the 1880s.  My impression is that
nias^iNga emphasizes an outside person, while nikkas^iNga is an inside
person or the default form.  I supppose the kk could be viewed a sort of
reflexive or reciprocal, though it doesn't appear that the
reflexive/reciprocal -kki- is historically present here.

I'm hestitent about putting too much weight on this hypothesis.  It seemed
consistant across a random sample of examples, but it called for a certain
amount of interpretation, and I thought that a larger sample or
consultation would be needed to confirm it.  Unfortunately, nias^iNga and
nikkas^iNga are very common in the texts and consultation wasn't possible.

I think I've discussed this with Kathy Shea in the past, but I can't
remember what she suggested, which I hope means we didn't come to any
definite conclusions!

> ne'os^iN hiN's^kube = 'thick-haired person' = Bigfoot

The loss of -ga in a compound would be reasonable, especially with z^iNga,
of which I take s^iNga to be a doublet form.  Isn't bluebird waz^iN'ttu
(waz^iNga '(small) bird')?  Z^iNga also loses -ga in diminutive forms like
siz^iN 'little child' or saNz^iN 'little brother'.

> Tangentially, Fletcher & LaFlesche list /s^e hiN's^kube/ as 'peach',
> where /s^e/ means 'apple' in Omaha.  So I guess /hiN's^kube/ (/hiN/ =
> 'hair'; /s^kube/ = 'deep' or 'thick') could be glossed as the standard
> Omaha word for 'hairy'.

I agree, I've encountered 'deep furred/haired' somewhere else, too, I
think in the Dorsey texts.  I believe hiN is 'fur' or 'body hair' (e.g.,
on a human).

JEK