Hethushka -- the curmudgeonly explanation.

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, R. Rankin wrote:
> The linguist in me tells me that ALL of the proposed etymologies/sources
> for this term thus far are probably "folk etymologies".  There is no
> guarantee that the term is even Siouan in origin. This is especially the
> case since it is attested in Pawnee and possibly other languages.
> Where else is it represented and where/when did it begin?

The short of it is that I agree with Bob.

> There is strong evidence that the term has been borrowed/loaned around
> quite apart from its appearance in Pawnee.  The sound correspondences
> simply don't match among the languages -- even closely related ones --
> where the term is found. The Omaha and Ponca [dh] doesn't match the
> Osage and Kaw [l], which, then, has to represent either a borrowed [dh]
> sound or the remains of an earlier [gl] cluster.  Neither works, and I
> see no point in stretching credibility to make the Osage/Kaw forms into
> datives, reflexives, reciprocals or whatever other Kontortions one would
> have to go to to make the phonemes match.  The oral/nasal vowels don't
> match either.  And accent seems to be on different syllables in
> different languages. Everything points to diffusion.

I do suspect that the original form here is something like the OP form
hedhus^ka and that versions that substitute i for he (or s for s^) are
minimally divergent from this, perhaps in the interest of producing a more
canonical seeming form for a fundamentally uninterpretable word.  The
Osage (and maybe Kaw) forms with iloN substituted for hedhu are probably
cases where iloN 'eldest son' or possibly 'thunder' (really loN, isn't
it?) has been specifically substituted for the meaningless hedhu syllables
within those languages, again trying to form a more plausible sounding
word - a strong suggestion of a borrowing.

I don't know of any interpretation for the word that doesn't strike me as
a more or less strained folk etymology, and I can't make anything of the
pieces, though, if I had to guess, it would be hedhus^ (meaningless to me,
and not a very canonical morpheme either) + ka, the latter acting as a
nominalizer:  "those who hedhus^."  Ignoring more divergent forms like
those in Osage, you could come up with a pseudo-reconstruction as
*heros^ka, and this or *iros^ka seem to be the underlying models in most
of the within-Siouan phonological adaptations I've run into.

I really don't think I've seen any parallel to xdh- developing as hedh- in
any Dhegiha language.  It seems to me that this is the kind of thing that
happens when English speakers who don't know the language try to work with
transcriptions of xdh (maybe with h. for x), but not usually when native
speakers deal with the language orally.  That is, I wouldn't expect xdhe
to progress to hedh(e), let alone hedhu.  But it could well be the sort of
thing that a native speaker would come up with when racking his brain for
an explanation of meaningless hedh(u)-.  As a species we really hate for
things not to be explicable.  "I don't know" is a fundamentally annoying
answer.

In any event, if this were the explanation, then the final e of xdhe seems
to disappear in hedhus^ka, meaning that it would have to be something like
hedhe + us^ka, where Rory's suggestion works as well as any.  However,
sources like Dorsey don't write hedhus^kaN and we'd hardly expect speakers
of other Siouan languages to miss the nasal in borrowing the word.

> We do know several things, but they remain pretty non-specific.  (1) it
> definitely has to do with dancing everywhere it occurs, (2) in several
> groups, this is strictly a men's society/dance. (3) the Grass Dance
> wouldn't necessarily fit with 2 "down South" however.  The pow-wow
> circuit is within the general dance category.

I think that the Hedus^hka is pretty clearly a men's society in its Omaha
form.  There is a revived society active today.  The historical society
has all the hallmarks of a Plains men's society.  It has officers, and a
characteristic regalia.  It has a genre of music realized originally as a
set of society songs, and it has a dance.  It seems to be especially
concerned with the celebration of war honors, which is characteristic of
Plains men's societies.

There are historical reports of the Omahas selling the society to the
Dakota (Yanktons, if I recall) in the middle 1800s.  I think that this
sort of transfer probably underlies what is called the "Grass Dance" in
English, because that is generally said to be derived from the Hedhus^ka,
and my understanding (from Lowie) is that the Grass Dance underlies the
Hot Dance acquired by the Missouri River groups from the Dakotas.  It
think it is generally understood at Pow Wows today that this complex -
regalia, music, dance - underlies the "straight" dancing competitions.

I am really not a specialist in Plains music or dancing or men's
societies, so I am not sure I have any or all of this right.  I am also
not sure to what extent Hedus^ka songs and dancing are unique against the
backdrop of similar practices in other societies.  It does seem that a
succession of groups found something about the complex to be new and
attractive.  It seems to have been the Plains equivalent of a dance craze
and even, without intending any disrespect, calls to mind the analog of
"the birth of Rock'n'Roll."  Suddenly everybody wanted to sing these songs
and do these dances, though they'd certainly been singing and dancing
before.

Of course, there's actually quite a lot of variation and historical
progression in the regalia and dancing as the complex has spread north and
propagated through the Pow Wow circuit.  Regalia and even details in ways
of doing the dance are seen as regional traits and good or bad depending
on what your own local standards are.  I was admiring a particularly
energetic, high-stepping, "steel springs in the legs" style once,
apparently a "northern"  style, and had an Omaha person or two point out
the subtle, understated, dignified style of an older Omaha man as their
own ideal.

There does seem to be a consensus, scholarly and also popular, that the
Omaha (I think here including the Ponca) are a source of the northern
spread of the Hedhus^ka.  I've never stumbled on anything about the
southerly spread (or prior existence) of the Hedhus^ka and have no idea
what the story might be there.  I do remember a Kiowa dance group
specifying that the next dance was an "Ohama" or maybe it was "Omaha"  or
even "Ovama" dance.  I wish I'd been able to hear clearly what he said!

> I wish I could be more positive.  I think the only way to pursue this is
> to try to track down specific semantic references in as many languages
> as possible and see how or if they fit together. That's what I've tried
> to do here, but I haven't gotten very far!

I agree, and I'd suggest further that a general attention to complexes of
this sort might be an effective strategy.  Often trying to understand how
something differs from similar things is a good way to come at its precise
character.  For example, a lot of society names incorporate an animal
reference.  The Omaha belt is specifically called a "crow."  On the other
hand, I've often thought that the details of the costume and the dancing
were vaguely reminiscent of game bird lek displays.