Me Hi

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu wrote:
> > (?) Eskana me hi the, naNde dhiudaN kkaNbdha.
>
> >     Eskana me hi tHe, noNde thiudoN koNbtha.
>
> I would loosely gloss this as:
>
>      I suppose spring has arrived where you are,
>      which hopefully makes your heart glad.
>
> Is this from one of the Ponca Letters?

No.  I'm afraid I made it up.  I've been wrestling with the syntax of this
sort of thing for years.  I'm now thinking maybe ...

(?) Eskana me s^uhi egaN naNde dhiudaN kkaNbdhegaN,
    Eskana me shuhi egoN noNde thiudoN koNbthegoN.

Or maybe adaN/adoN 'and therefore' instead of egaN/egoN 'and so' (or
'having')?  I think I got the "would that" idiom "Eska(na) ...
kkaNbdh=egaN" right this time.  I forgot the final egaN the first time.
I'm pretty sure on reflection that s^uhi 'arrive there where you are' is
better than simple hi 'arrive there'.  Maybe it should be reflexive.

So, by intent, something like "Happy spring!"  I understand this is the
first day of Spring in the calendrical sense.  Spring is here in Boulder,
but in typical Front Range (High Plains) fashion will alternate with
winter for several months more.  (Note:  I haven't heard any thunder yet.)

This may or may not be grammatical and is probably weak culturally in
several ways, e.g., I've never encountered an idiom expressing greetings,
etc., based on some occasion, e.g., no "Merry Christmas" or
"Congratulations on being pipe danced," etc.

JEK