Virtues

[bi1 at soas.ac.uk]

In the connection of virtues the wors wauNs^ilapi or wowauns^ila
which in biblical contexts comes to mean 'mercifulness', 'mercy' is
probabbly just general 'kindness' and seems to be one virtue often
referred to or the absence of it.  It may in a nomadic society imply
quite often 'hospitality' I suppose.

On 22 Jun 2002, at 17:51, Koontz John E wrote:

>
> However, I couldn't think of a term for 'hospitality'.  I couldn't find
> one in Swetland, either.  Then I noticed I couldn't find it in Ingham or
> Buechel, either.  My suspicion is that the term is there, but with a
> different gloss that hasn't occurred to me.
>
> I did find 'hospitable' in LaFlesche, who gives gi'-hi doN-he (ki'hi
> toNhe?).  LaFlesche has almost a full column under doN-he 'following the
> requirements of [honorable] married life'.  I don't know the corresponding
> term in Omaha-Ponca.  I think gi'-hi must be a motion verb, perhaps the
> dative of hi 'to arrive there', i.e., 'to arrive for something; arrive to
> obtain/fetch something', but this relies on Omaha-Ponca models and the
> whole construction is obscure to me,
>
> As near as I can tell (using mainly Ingham), the Teton terms for the two
> virtues I can identify are
>
> generous:  thawac^hiN ...was^te 'mind, disposition' + 'pleasant' (nice
> stative verb in wa-)
>
> generous:  c^haNte' ...yukhAN 'heart' + 'to be' (inflected as stative)
>
> generous:  ox?aN..phi 'to do, to work' + 'good' (stative)
>
> generous, good-natured:  c^haNl..yuhA 'heart' + 'have' (active)
>
> industrious:  ...blihec^a (stative), ...blihec^aka (stative)
>
> industrious, skilful in making:  wakax wo..hitika 'making' +
> 'furiously, energetically' (stative)
>
> industrious: napis^taN(ka) 'an industrious person'
>
> I suspect these are not simply synonyms, but without a variety of examples
> it would be difficult for a linguist to distinguish the shades of meaning.
>
> I noticed that Swetland gives for 'generous' in Omaha:
>
> noNde udoN 'heart' + 'be good' (dative)
>
> which I've encountered widely as 'be glad, be pleased', e.g., noNde
> iN'udoN 'I am glad, lit. my heart is good or more lit. heart is good for
> me'.  He also gives
>
> ushkoN udoN 'generous person' (elucidated as 'you did well')
>
> which is just the term I gave above for a 'good doings'.  The dsame
> observations would apply as in the Dakotan case.  It would be difficult
> for a linguist to determine the shades of meaning involved here without a
> body of examples.
>
> JEK
>