More regarding "wa"

[Rory M Larson]

I'm sure that nidhe is a causative.  I assume
that the ni(N)- part of that is the same root
as in nita, 'to live'.  I'd agree with Bob's
bracketting below.

As for interpretation, I was reflexing off what
Tom and John were using.  According to the
Stabler-Swetland dictionary of Omaha, nidhe
means 'to rescue', presumably 'cause to live'.
This version agrees with Dorsey's use of
Nia'wadhai' for 'Saviour' (He-saves-us, or
He-causes-us-to-live) in Omaha.  (The Ponka
version he gives is the same, with the first
syllable NiN- nasalized.)

So does nidhe mean 'to heal' in modern Ponka?
The Omaha word for 'healer' or 'doctor' seems
to be waze'dhe, also wa-CAUSATIVE.

Rory





                      "R. Rankin"
                      <rankin at ku.edu>             To:       <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
                      Sent by:                    cc:
                      owner-siouan at lists.c        Subject:  Re: More regarding "wa"
                      olorado.edu


                      12/17/2003 02:08 PM
                      Please respond to
                      siouan






Is (wa-)nidhe a causative?  Looks like one.  I'm
assuming that the internal bracketting is [[wa]
[[ni] [dhe]]].  The semantics of the derivational
process here seem fairly consistent, although one
wouldn't expect the semantic outcome of derivation
necessarily to be predictable.  I can't decide
right off whether I consider this (apparently
nominalizing) WA- to be related to our other WA's
synchronically or not.  But "one morpheme or
two??" is an ancient and vexed question when one
tried to a strictly synchronic grammar.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
>   wa-sabe = 'the one that is black'
>   wa-s^abe = 'the one that is dark'
>   wa-xube = 'the one that is holy'
>   wa-z^iNga = 'the one that is small'
>   wa-z^ide = 'the one that is red'
>
> These are all stative verbs, but it looks as if
> active verbs can be used in the same way:
>
>   wa-nidhe = 'the one that heals'