Word for 'prairie' in Hochunk.

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Henning Garvin wrote:
> >The term /maaNx/ is interesting because the related term in the majority
> >of the more westerly Siouan languages is the term for 'sky' or 'upper
> >world'.  It's still a clear expanse, but up there rather than down to
> >earth.  So if the two terms are as related as they look, they're nice
> >examples of semantic change.
>
> I won't hazard a guess on if they are related, but the HoChunk word for
> 'sky, cloud' is /maNaNxi/.  Would be interesting if these are related in
> some way.

Actually, the CSD does have a small 'field' set including the Winnebago
form - Dakotan ma(N)'gha 'field, cultivated area', ma(N)'ghahu
'cornstalk', IO maN'aNxe 'cornfield', Wi maN'aNx 'field, tract, garden'.

This doesn't sem to have a Dhegiha cognate, maybe because any comparable
form would conflict with maN'(aN)ghe 'sky, upper world'.  Dhegiha has
forms based on *owe for 'field'.  Dorsey always gives the OP form as u?e,
which I took to be from *o-K?e 'in which to dig or hoe', but I see that
even Quapaw and Osage, which would retain k?, seem to have -we.  IO, which
would also have k? from *k? also has uwe' 'field, rows of plants'.

It would be extremely interesting metaphor, if 'field' and 'upper world'
had any connection.  Like Henning I'm not sure I would hazard such a
connection, but there is at least one story motif in which women digging
in the upper world discover the earth through a hole they make in the
upper world.  I believe they are usually digging for roots, but hoeing
might do as well.  It would at least support a pun or two.

In connection with mooska (Miner has mo'osga (moo'sga) 'dessert'), while a
loan would be interesting, it is also possible to see this as a compound
*maNaN-ska 'white earth'.  If it were a *-ka nominalization of *maNaNs -
perhaps a sound symbolism grade of *maNaNx(e) 'field', I think it would be
expected to appear as *maNaNske, which it doesn't.  In both these cases
I'm also trying to make moo- into maNaN-, perhaps maNaN- 'earth'.  For
forms like moowe' 'to walk', or moo's^?ok 'hill, mound', moo'ga 'bank',
moo'haj^a 'hard ground', moo'c^i 'cellar' this might work.  The frequent
initial accent in these forms is, like the mo sequence, a bit unusual.  I
wonder if they might not represent dialect variants.

If moo'ska is a loan froma model like

> a word based on a root (*mas^kw- ?) meaning 'grass', e.g., Fox
> mas^kote:wi, Ojibway mas^kode.

(I assume these are the underpinnings of Mascoutin?)

then we also have to explain what happened to the -te(:wi).  For example,
can this initial occur without that additional material or might the
initial be borrowed as an independent form?

JEK