wawaN (Re: More regarding "wa")

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003, Tom Leonard wrote:
> To throw one more wrench in the engine -in light of the discussion
> regarding "wa wa" - La Flesche (1939) has WaWa as "the Peace Ceremony"
> (although I think this comes from wa'o^n -to sing or song).

I make this wa'waN (referring to the pipe dance adoption ceremony), with
wa wa and varients being less satisfactory transcriptions that neglect the
nasalization.  This also occurs in Dorsey in various places.  Stucturally
it is wa + a'waN 'to sing on (or over) people; to make an adoption in the
pipe dance' from a'waN 'to sing on (or over) someone; to adopt someone
with the pipe dance'.  The translations with "people" and "someone" are at
best awkward and conventional ways of expressing the transitivity of the
verbs in question.  The expression "pipe dance" itself is also a somewhat
awkward and conventional translation, though I believe it's standard.