Attn. Dhegiha specialists.

[Rankin, Robert L]

I have received the appended request from one of the curators for the U.S.
Senate to translate an inscription he believes to be in the Kaw language.
It includes a photograph of the inscription, which is on a chair presented
to Charles Curtis when he was Vice President of the United States from
1929-1933.  Curtis was part Kaw.  I hope the Colorado listserver permits
photo attachments.  If it doesn't come through and you'd like a copy, let me
know.

I thought I'd give all of you a crack at it.  I'll be trying to translate it
as well.  It's pretty clearly written in a Dhegiha dialect.  It may be Kaw,
but written down by someone using the Osage dictionary as a source (since
there was no Kaw dictionary, Osage would be the closest source of lexicon in
published form).  It looks as though it has "TH" where Kaw would have [y]
(both now and in the 1800's).  You'll want to look at the photo rather than
the curator's rendering of it, as someone has scratched in a small, raised
"n" above a vowel to indicate nasalization.  It's easily visible near the
top.  In other instances, a syllable-final <n> is written for nasalization.
Whoever wrote it pretty clearly had access to La Flesche's Osage Dictionary,
as they write "real" as /xtsi/.

Any ideas appreciated.  Naturally, I'll share credit where credit is due
when I send in my rendering.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Doerner, Rich (Secretary)
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 10:15 AM
To: Rankin at KU.EDU
Subject: Translation


Dear Mr. Robert Rankin:

Ms. Virginia Wulfkuhle, Public Archeologist at Kansas, recommended that I
write to you.  I am the Museum Specialist in the Office of Senate Curator
conducting research on a chair presented to Vice President Charles Curtis.
I am interested in translating the following Native American Indian (Kaw ?)
word(s) that appear on a circular medallion in the center of the backrest on
the carved walnut chair.  The letters may be out of order.  I have enclosed
a digital image of the medallion for your translation..

KO-THA-U-CA-SHE / THI-CE-XTSI MO-NI / KO-ON-THAIHA-IN

In addition to the above, the chair is also inscribed "From the Original
Curtis Boys and Matthew Quay Glaser".  I am reading numerous books on
Curtis, reviewing New York Times articles, and conducting research at the
Library of Congress to  learn more about them.

THANK YOU in advance for any help you may be able to provide.


Richard Doerner
Museum Specialist
Office of the Senate Curator
Room S-411, U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, D.C.  20510-7102

 <<jpg chair.JPG>>



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: jpg chair.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 123582 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/siouan/attachments/20030729/dfa7daaf/attachment.jpe>