Linguistic term needed

[Rory M Larson]

Bob wrote:
> Got an example?  I'm not sure I have the proper term, but I'm thinking of
the
> Chinese borrowing the word "America" as mei-guo (which has 2 similar
syllables).
> And mei-guo, perhaps conscious choice, means roughly 'beautiful kingdom'.
I
> suppose it's a kind of "loan-blend", but not the typical kind.

That's a good one.  What I had in mind was a way to describe
the possibility that the first part of OP /ppahi(N)-z^ide/
is a "pun" on the first part of Fr. Pain Court, or that both
of these might be puns on a name for Cahokia/St. Louis in
some undetermined third language, without having to spell it
out every time.

Or actually, how about this one?  I've noticed that words for
metals in MVS languages are commonly compounds of 'metal' plus
a color term.  Thus, 'white metal' is silver, 'black metal' is
iron, 'red metal' is copper, and 'yellow metal' is brass.
(Gold is 'yellow silver', or 'yellow white metal'.)  In OP,
the word for lead is moNze tu, 'blue metal'.  But in Dakota,
lead is maNza su, which also means 'bullet'.  Apparently the
Dakota word was influenced by the Omaha term phonologically,
but since the Omaha word for 'blue', tu, had shifted so far
from the Dakota word tho, the Dakota reinterpreted the Omaha
tu into Dakota su, meaning 'seed' or 'pellet'.  Thus, it came
out as 'metal pellet', which served them both as the substance
'lead', and for the bullets that are made of that substance.

Rory




                      "R. Rankin"
                      <rankin at ku.edu>             To:       <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
                      Sent by:                    cc:
                      owner-siouan at lists.c        Subject:  Re: Linguistic term needed
                      olorado.edu


                      04/11/2004 10:44 PM
                      Please respond to
                      siouan






Got an example?  I'm not sure I have the proper term, but I'm thinking of
the
Chinese borrowing the word "America" as mei-guo (which has 2 similar
syllables).
And mei-guo, perhaps conscious choice, means roughly 'beautiful kingdom'.
I
suppose it's a kind of "loan-blend", but not the typical kind.

Bob

> Does anybody have a proper linguistic term for the phenomenon
> of borrowing a word from a foreign language in such a way as to
> build a native construction that approximately chimes with the
> phonological sequence of the original?  I've been using "pun",
> but I suspect there's a more appropriate term for it.
>
> Thanks!
> Rory
>
>