Kahomni

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, Louis Garcia wrote:
> I am planning on doing an essay or paper on the Kahomni Dance. I have
> asked local speakers what the 'ka' part means. They all say it means
> 'the action' (Ka= action of; homni= circling).

I concur with David.  I can add:

- In Omaha-Ponca there is an instrumental prefix ga- with much the same
meaning as Dakotan ka-, 'action by force' or 'action by striking'.  This
ga- appears in a number of cases seems to mean instead, or maybe just more
specifically, 'action by wind or water current'.  I've noticed similar
usages in other Dhegiha languages and in Dakotan, though this sense of the
'by striking' is not one that appears, in, say, Boas & Deloria, at least
not as far as I can recall.

I believe Randy Graczyk reports a similar form in a similar sense in Crow.
But in Crow this form is distinct from the 'by striking' instrumental.
It looks like 'by wind' was PS *ka, while 'by striking' was PS *(r)aka.
The *r is deleted with the first and second persons and present in the
third.  The 'by striking' instrumental is simplified in various ways in
various branches of the Siouan languages, and falls together with 'by
wind' in the Mississippi Valley branch.

- I think -homni forms are often associated with the the whirlwind.  Dick
Carter once mentioned to me an example of a name that meant 'Charging
Whirlwind' and included, as I recall, three repetitions of (h)omni.
Unfortunately I don't recall the name!

Given these two observations, I would expect the form to have something to
do with spinning or whirling.  I haven't looked this up in Buechel, etc.,
however.