Colors in Dakota -Duta

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> Do we have any 'red' cognates to Dakotan /sha/ in other branches of
> Siouan?

I think not, but I'm speaking without looking at the CSD database.

> If luta/duta/nuta once included 'blue' as well as 'red', that might
> help along the suggestion that the term once meant 'ripe', since some
> berries ripen to blue or black or purple rather than to red.

That's an interesting observation.

> Hmm.  We have this as /sakka dhide/ in the Stabler-Swetland
> dictionary, along with a /sakka dhide zi/ for 'cantaloup'. I'd better
> check this with the speakers.

Maybe that's what I'm remembering.  I think the Santee form, at least, has
duta, which in this case maps oddly, suggesting, at a minimum, some sort
of loan mapping that didn't quite work.  Duta doesn't match dhide in sense
(none known) or form.  Dhide would represent *rut- (or *rit-), but not
*Rut- or *z^ut- (*yut-) (omitting the *u/*i > i complication for
simplicity's sake).  (Note that *y and voiced variants of *s^ both come
out z^ in Dhegiha and, now and again, in Ioway-Otoe, the main example I
remember being 'penis' awkwardly:  *ye.)  One possibility would be that
meaningless -dhide, taken for meaningful z^ide, was the source of Dakotan
duta, if the borrowing of the fruit went that way.  Or maybe more likely
dhide had z^ide as a variant in the past, or original z^ide was replaced
by dhide later when *sakkaz^ide was taken as unanalyzable for some reason.

I don't know quite what to make of the watermelon set.  I think sa(a)kka
has non-Siouan lookalikes in the South, but I forget where.  I've never
been clear on the history of watermelons the cultigen either.  I think
they're introduced, but I also recall reading that the survivors of the
LaSalle (?) Expedition found the Quapaws raising them in numbers already
in the early 1600s.  If they are imports they must have spead like
wildfire.  They are good to eat, fairly easy to raise, and easily
transported as seeds.  And there are plenty of seeds to transport.

> Having once bottle fed bull calves cast out from a dairy operation, I
> can confirm the color for bovines as well. It may have even been a
> trifle on the orange side.  ...

Yes, that would apply in the human case, too.  I'm glad to have some
testimony on bovines.  My contact with domestic animals has been a bit
limited.