Winnebago Song (Re: SSILA Bulletin #205) (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

Thinking on the wa ya aequence in the inflection of the second and third
lines I think I've divined what it is.

On Sun, 8 Feb 2004, Koontz John E wrote:
> > Hizhan wa ya kitt'ehka[,]  Zhe skeshunana;
    hiz^aN wiiagit?e=ga        z^eeske=s^uNnuN=   naN
    one    speaks of us having thus    habitually DECL
>
> Here, after reflection, I think the underlying verb is more likely hit?e'
> 'to talk', which is the analog of OP i(y)e', incidentally, of which we
> were speaking recently.  This might have a dative form 'to speak of
> someone' of the shape higit?e.
>
> > Hizhan wa ya zhi zhi ka[,]      zhe ske shun[u]na       ya.
    hiz^aN wiiaz^iz^i        =ga    z^eeske=s^uNnuN=   naN
    one    whispers about us having thus    habitually DECL (vocable?)
>
> A good parallel with hit?e might be z^iiz^i' 'to whisper', though this
> looks like it might be a hypothetical hiz^iiz^i, perhaps 'to whisper
> about'.

> Logically, it is possible that the inflected form here (and above) is
> 'they ... about me', but I'm not sure the forms work for that. In any
> event, it looks like the inflectional-locative string is the same in
> this line and the preceding one.

I have puzzled through Marten's complex generative analysis of the
Winnebago inflectional string.  Fortunately I took notes the last time ...
I have also looked at Lipkind's tables of contractions.

I have come to the conclusion that they are both saying that the P12
marker waNg...(h)a combines with the locative (h)i to produce wiia.
Moreover Marten indicates that ii tends to sound as ee.  I believe
therefore that wa ya is intended to represent this wiia or P12 + (h)i.
That is, P12 + (h)i comes out much like Omaha-Ponca wea in the same
context.  So I think perhaps that the verbs here are wiiagit?e=ga '(s)he
having spoken of us' (waN + i + a + gi + t?e=ga) and wiiaz^iiz^i=ga '(s)he
having whispered about us' (waN + i + a + z^iiz^i=ga).

I'm still puzzled about line 5, and, of course, I hope it is clear that I
could easily be way, way off about the rest, too.  I'm always uneasy when
I have to do this much guessing about the vocabulary, though I think I've
been fairly careful to tie everything both to existing words and attested
patterns of derivation on the one hand, and to a development of a text on
the other.

I suppose logically line 5 should reiterate the matter of line 1, or
express some sort of successful denoument with regard to line 4, but as my
first guesses on pretty much everything have been wrong, I wouldn't lay
any money on my current suggested similarities to 'carry' or 'dare'.

I am pretty sure it's all Winnebago.  I don't think it was recorded in any
of the usual sources, because the orthography is too different, and
because the vocabulary hasn't found its way into the usual lists.

Incidentally, while William Lipkind says that wa + (h)i/(h)a/(h)o contract
to wi/wa/wo (presumably long), Marten says that they yield wawi/wawa/wawo.
Anita Marten worked with John White Eagle of Madison, Wisconsin, from 6/63
to 2/64, and briefly with Howard White Thunder of Lyndon Station,
Wisconsin.  Lipkind thanks the residents of Winnebago, Nebraska and says
the work was done in the summer of 1936.  It's hard to say if the
difference is temporal, dialectal, regional, or personal.  In any event,
it does show that there is some variation within the Winnebago speach
community.