Dances with Wolves

[bi1 at soas.ac.uk]

Sorry, but why does the nature of Pawnee and Arikara lead to it
becoming gibberish in films.  I'm fascinated
Bruce

On 1 Dec 2003 at 14:20, Parks, Douglas R. wrote:

Date sent:      	Mon, 1 Dec 2003 14:20:17 -0500
Send reply to:  	siouan at lists.colorado.edu
From:           	"Parks, Douglas R." <parksd at indiana.edu>
To:             	<siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Subject:        	RE: Dances with Wolves

> Anthony,
>
> It has been several years since I watched Dances with Wolves, but the
> "Pawnees" in the movie were not speaking Pawnee--or anything like it.
> My impression was that the speech is nonsense.  (But maybe if I listened
> again I might hear a Pawnee word or two.)
>
> That is also the case for most of the Arikara speech that occurs in a TV
> serial on Custer that aired five or six years ago.  The character
> playing Bloody Knife (Custer's favorite scout) says, "Kaakii'," which
> means "no."  The English subtitles, however, gave two or three long
> sentences for Kaakii'.  The other Arikara is jibberish.  Ditto the
> Arikara in the sequel to "A Man Called Horse."  That's not surprising,
> though, given the nature of Arikara and Pawnee.
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> FIGHT BACK AGAINST SPAM!
> Download Spam Inspector, the Award Winning Anti-Spam Filter
> http://mail.giantcompany.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> [mailto:owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Anthony Grant
> Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 1:43 PM
> To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> Subject: Dances with Wolves
>
> Folks:
>
> As far as I could tell, based on my reading of the works of Douglas R
> Parks, James R Murie, Gene Weltfish and Ferdinand Hayden.at least some
> of  the Pawnees in the film were speaking Pawnee. I recall earing
> something like /tawit/ 'three' and also a large number of words ending
> in /-ks/. I think I heard /tsahriks/ 'person' in there somewhere, but I
> may be mistaken.  Plus the phonology of the language was NOTHING like
> that either of Lakhota or Cherokee.
>
> Anthony
>
>