Wolverines (Re: Virtues-wolves-coyotes)

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002 bi1 at soas.ac.uk wrote:
> While we are on animals I noticed in the Bushotter texts a word mnaja
> (ie mnaz^a) as 'wolverine'.  ...  I have also seen it in Riggs Dakota
> Dictionary as 'lion, wild cat'.  ...

I looked in the Siouan Archives files, and in various dictionaries and,
other than the Bushotter and Riggs references found only a Stoney form
mnazan. I suppose the -n is the diminutive.  I think the fricative shoift
is normal.  I also checked under 'lion', 'cat', and possible phonological
matches without luck.  I'd expect something like *naNz^e in Dhegiha or
Ioway-Otoe, and like *naNaNs^ in Winnebago, though I also looked in
Omaha-Ponca under *bdhaNz^e and in Winnebago under *pa(N)naNs^, just in
case.

This doesn't mean there isn't some attestation out there.

I did notice "shanmonikasi" as a variant for 'wolf, prairie wolf, coyote'
in IO, attributed to Maximilian.

I also think I saw the Bushotter reference in question.  Interestingly, it
was a list of animals, and between 'badger' and 'lion' were ma'yas^lec^a,
s^uNkmanitu, and s^uNkmanitu thaNka.  In the interlinear these were
glossed 'coyotes, wolves, and large wolves', and in the free they were
glossed 'coyotes, foxes'.

I suppose we can take 'lion' as a way of saying (in English) 'big cat',
consistent with 'cat' as a generic preditor term.

JEK