Word for 'prairie' in Hochunk.

[R. Rankin]

Note though that the semantics of the compounds is quite transparent except in
the case of mooska 'plains, prairie', which makes the sudden jump from
earth+in-white(spot) to 'plains'.  It's at that point that I'd look for the
influence of maaskwa, precisely 'plains, prairie'.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 11:22 PM
Subject: RE: Word for 'prairie' in Hochunk.


> In support of the productivity of these forms:
>
> maNaN' in Miner
>
> On Fri, 30 Jan 2004, Henning Garvin wrote:
> > moowe               'to walk, follow a path'
> > maNaN + howe    'earth, ground + follow a path, a path'
>
> moo'we and howe' both in Miner
>
> Further afield, -we is cognate with Dhegiha *-phe, OP -he, as in z^ohe 'to
> wade', uhe 'to follow'.
>
> > mooci                 'cellar, den'
> > maNaN + hoc^i      'earth, ground + dwelling, house'
>
> moo'c^i in Miner; hoc^i' in Lipkind
>
> > mooraje              'visits the earth (Bear Clan Name)'
> > maNaN + horaje   'earth + visit'
>
> horaj^e' in Miner
>
> > moos^?ok          'small rounded hill, mound'
> > maNaN + s^?ok   'earth, ground + something rounded, bumplike'
>
> moo's^?ok in Miner; and hos^?o'k 'hill' is, too
>
> > mooska              'clearing or field'
> > maNaN + hoska   'earth + clearing or field'
>
> moo'sga and hosga' in Miner
>
> Miner writes sg for sk on principle.
>
> Under hosga' 'be open, clear (land)' he includes hosga'ij^a 'prairie'.
> Marino (p. 317) gives mosga 'prairie'
>
> > they couldn't break down mooga, just telling me the entire word means the
> > bank of a lake or any water body.
>
> Miner lists moo'ga.  He doesn't have hoga', but IO has 'uka, ukaN' 'cliff,
> bank', which implies PWC *oka', the necessary underpinning for maNaN +
> *(h)oga', even though hoga' isn't attested anywhere as far as I know.
> Perhaps the word has fallen out of use entirely, or perhaps no one has
> stumbled on a speaker who recalls it.
>
> > moohaj^a didn't make sense to them as hard ground.  They said it would mean
> > travelling around the world, literally seeing other countries.  But even
> > then they would rather say maNaN haja.
> >
> > Hard ground could be mooja.  It can be used to refer to hard ground, but
> > more specifies a rather well delineated area of land.  They didn't break
> > this word down for me.  maNaN + hoja didn't work well for them.  I was
> > thinking it could possibly be related to jaa 'be frozen' but the speakers I
> > was with didn't like that analyses.
>
> Miner has moo'haj^a' and, of course, haj^a' 'to see'.  He doesn't have any
> hypothetical hohaj^a'.  There is maNaNha' 'mud' and j^aa 'frozen'.
> Moo'haj^a might be a rendition of maNaNha'j^a 'frozen mud' somewhat along
> the lines Henning suggests.  Hypothetical moo'j^a from maNaN +
> hypothetical (h)oj^a makes more sense to me, too, though the form hoj^a
> isn't attested in Miner and we still haven't handled the -ha- in the
> middle.
>
> Miner also lists
>
> moo'kahi 'every year' and explains it as maNaN + hokahi 'every' under the
> latter.
>
> moosiN'niN Mosinee, WI hosiNniN' is 'be cold' (cf. OP usniN')
>
> Marino (p. 317) lists additional mo(o)- forms:
>
> modja' (mooj^a) 'something that grows in the ground', cf. ???
> mogi'eje 'to scatter', mokie 'scattered', cf. gi?e 'scatter', horu?e' 'to
>   sow', hoi?e' 'sow, scatter seeds'
> mopase 'bluff', cf. hopase' 'corner (in town)'
> moro 'shore', cf. ???
> mowaxu 'pour on the ground', cf. howaxu' 'pour into'
>
>