Indian perfume set.

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003, Mary Marino wrote:
> I'm not crazy about it either, and I have looked at a lot of "sound
> symbolism"  (consonant ablaut) sets, in both Dakota and Hotchunk.  /s/ and
> /s^/ do not invariably interact with each other in c ablaut sets, if I may
> state the obvious.

I agree that these are probably only coincidentally similar, though
looking at the whole range of *pSi(N)-based tuber/wetland plant terms I
sometimes wonder.

To answer Bruce, though, yes these terms do recur across Mississippi
Valley Siouan, though presumably most of the groups knew rice mainly by
hearsay or possibly trade.  The original terms sometimes gets applied to
imported rice, too.  In Winnebago it's (part of) a personal name, I think,
though the reference I know for it is in Omaha form. Except in Dakotan the
initial p- is lost, as part of the regular reduction of *CS clusters to S.
Terms for onion are replaced in Dhegiha, as far as I recall.

> In these parts, among my consultants, 'sweetgrass' is pez^uta was^temna.  I
> think there is likely to be as much regional variation is this as in other
> plant and animal lexica.

Definitely.

> I don't quite have the hang of e-mail phonetic orthography in Siouan, so if
> my usage is deficient, please set me straight.

There are some idiolectal variants, but your usage is regular.