Dakota wakhan

[Jimm G GoodTracks]

It may be added to Bob's list below, that "WakaNda" (God) is also found
in Ponca & Ioway/Otoe.  In Winnebago (Hochank) it is rendered "WakaNja'"
(Thunders/ Thunder Birds).  The Winnebago retains an older meaning/
application of the word, which was apparent in IOM & Osage, et.al., as
noted by LaFleshe, Osage Dictionary, pp.193-194.  As such, when the term
appears in an IOM Clan Name, it is best rendered as "thunder", e.g.,
WakandaKipa (Meets The Thunders).
The WIN continue to use Ma^unna, (Earth Maker) for their original/
contemporary term for Diety.   An 80+ Ioway elder, indicated without
solicitation in 1980's that "Ma^un" (Creator/ Earth Maker) was ultilized
along with "Wakanda", by the IOM, during his early years by elders.  It
is noted in M.Merril's IOM biblical texts of 1830's, he uses "Wakanda"
exclusively.
As noted below for Omaha, the IOM words for sacred/ mysterious is
"xoñita" or "xobrin".  Both may take the "wa-" nominalizar when standing
alone.
jgt

On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 07:04:52 -0400 (EDT) Ardis R Eschenberg
<are2 at acsu.buffalo.edu> writes:
> A little note on Omaha concerning this is that wakaNda is used for
> 'God'
> whereas xube is used for 'sacred' currently.  I thought the wa- was a
> nominalizer in the above just as 'waxube' is used for holy things.
>
> BTW Really disappointed to have missed the conference.  Sounds like
> it was
> wonderful.  France wasn't too bad either.
>
>
>
> On Sat, 8 Jun 2002, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
>
> > The recent discussion of the lexical class of Dakota 'wakhaN'
> brought to
> > mind a historical comment I recently made in a paper that Giulia
> Oliverio
> > and I are publishing.  It is possible that the nominal status of
> 'medicine'
> > has affected the status of 'sacred, mysterious', ordinarily a
> stative verb.
> >
> >
> > Is it also possible that the root of 'sacred' was just -hkaN and
> that the
> > wa- nominalized it?  Here, in any event are the two cognate sets.
> >
> >     	  		'medicine'		 'sacred'
> > *PSI:			*wáN:hka		*wahkáN
> > Dakotan:					 wakháN 'spirit,
> sacred'
> > Chiwere: 		 máNkhaN 		 wakháN 'snake'
>
> > Winneb:  		 maN:káN 	 	 wakáN  'snake'
> > Omaha:   		 maNkkáN 	  	 wakkáNda
> 'sacred,  god'
> > Omaha:		         maNkkáN 	  	
> wakkáNdagi'water monster'
> > Kansa:   		 mokkáN 	  	 wakkáNda
> 'holy, god'
> > Osage:   		 maNhkáN 	  	 wahkáNta
> 'holy, god'
> > Quapaw:  		 makkáN 	  	 wakkáNtta
> 'spirit, god'
> > *OVS:			*muNka    'snake'
> > Biloxi:   		  n-dé:si 'snake'
> > Ofo:      		  oNktéfi 'snake'
> > Saponi		        "moka" 	  'snake'
> >
> > In 'medicine' and 'sacred' we have two semantically similar, but
> > derivationally unrelated, roots which, quite by chance, differ only
in
> > nasalization and accent placement.  Their superficial similarities
appear to
> > have led to a certain amount of mixing.  The 'medicine' column is
where this
> > Ohio Valley Siouan set properly belongs phonologically, but it has
undergone
> > the semantic specialization, acquiring the meaning 'snake', that is
typical
> > of the 'sacred' set in particular geographical areas.
> >
> > 'Sacred' underwent an exactly parallel change in Winnebago, Chiwere
and
> > Omaha.  Here it should be noted that the concepts 'God, sacred' and
'snake'
> > were related in much of the prehistoric eastern and central U.S.
> > Nevertheless, there is identical semantic specialization in all three
OVS
> > languages.
> >
> > Paul Voorhis provided comments on the areal nature of this
phenomenon.
> > Voorhis points to similar parallel conflation of 'snake' and 'deity'
in
> > Kickapoo.  Shawnee maneto is similarly 'snake' (David Costa, personal
> > communication).
> >
> > Here, as usual, Biloxi and Ofo lose initial labial resonants, while
Virginia
> > Siouan keeps them.  The -(k)desi portion of the Biloxi and Ofo
cognates
> > means 'striped' or 'spotted' and has good cognates throughout Siouan.

> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
>