bird.

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Mon Nov 3 19:57:38 UTC 2003


> But not in the South.

> Where - in case it's not clear - Bob means, 'not in Dhegiha', not 'not
in Nebraska Winnebago'.

Right.

> BTW, Biloxi has /tiNskana'/ 'jay', with simple /tiNska/ meaning 'back
of the neck'.  But Ofo is /teska itho:hi/ 'bluejay' = 'bird' + 'blue'.
And tiNska/teska may somehow be related, given the Dakotan and other
forms.

> I think that all the somewhat irregularly matching TV(s) syllables
here are onomatopoeic representations of the jay's "jay" call.  For
example, I suspect tiNskana and teska are essentially tiNs-ka (+ ???)
and tes-ka 'one (that goes) tiNs' or 'one (that goes) tes'.

Possibly so, but Ofo /teska/ is 'bird' of any kind, not just jay.  In
pointing that out, I was trying to cast a bit of doubt about the JOD
Biloxi form.  Dorsey classifies it with the 'back of the neck' term, but
I wonder if it isn't related to the Ofo 'bird' term, with 'back of the
neck' in Biloxi being a mere homonym.  Dorsey and Swanton's lexical
materials are full of homonyms listed under single dictionary entries.

Bob



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