Omaha-Ponca words

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Jonathan Holmes wrote:
> I am having some difficulty in determining the proper spelling and the
> literal translation for a number of Omaha-Ponca words. Perhaps there is
> someone on the list who can help.

Proper spelling is an interesting question.  Quite a number of internally
consistent, more or less satisfactory orthographies have been used with
Omaha-Ponca.  The best candidates for "proper spelling" in the context of
your efforts are probably the current popular orthographies for Omaha and
Ponca, which are similar, but not quite the same, though not in ways that
reflect the similar "similar, but not quite the same" situation with
respect to Omaha and Ponca speech.  The differences are simply slight
arbitrary differences in the spelling scheme.  I'll try to provide forms
in the Omaha version.  Neither of these schemes is trictly speaking
"official," but the are both in active use within the two tribes, and
backed by committee efforts.

>  The project I am working on involves the Omaha-Ponca Hethushka warrior
> society, in which there are men who hold various officer positions with
> appropriate titles. I have the titles in English first, followed by the
> Dhegiha word used with an assumed phonetic spelling I have heard used to
> describe the title, and in some cases, what the known literal
> translation of the Dhegiha term is. If anyone knows corrections,
> substitutions, additions or deletions to what I have listed, your help
> would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using capital N and H for raised n (nasalization) and h (aspiration).
I haven't written length, which is increasingly clearly a factor, though
it's come into the picture to some exten since the orthographies in
question were adopted.  I've marked accent with ' following the vowel, in
lieu of acute.  I've put dashes between elements in compounds.  Note that
single ptchk are pronounced "tense."  This means voiceless unaspirated in
initial position and after s, sh, etc., and voiceless geminate in medial
position otherwise.

> Headman - nuda'honga or nudon'honga or noda'honga - literally means:
> "war"? "leader"

nudoN-hoNga 'war (path)' + 'leader' (various English forms like headman,
captain, leader, war-leader, war-chief used in various contexts)

The accentuation is given in the Dorsey texts (1890, 1891) as nu'doN-hoNga
in the vocative and nudoN'-hoNga in reference forms.

> Camp Crier - wajey'pa or watsi'pxa or wa'gra ? - literally means: "?"

waje'pa 'crier, herald, announcer' It's a wa-derivative of a root jeppa or
deppa that means what it means.  I don't know of that root in another
word, but that doesn't mean it doesn't occur.  It could also be a loanword
from some other language.  The other forms I don't recognize.  They seem
to be different words entirely.  The second one looks like Osage to me.

> Historian - hegon'ootha ? - literally means: "?"

hi'goN-udha Hi'goN is 'myth; to tell a myth', using 'myth' as the term for
'traditional (animal) story'.  The second element is udha' 'teller; to
tell'

> Advisor - waygon'say ? - literally means: "?"

we'goNze 'advisor, to advise' from goN'ze 'to demonstrate, to teach'.
This seems to be a wa-derivative of a dative form gi'goNze.

> Whipman - wanon'she or wana'cis - literally means: "?"

wanoN'she 'solder, policeman, subordinate officer of a society, or of a
hunting expedition or war party'.  I think the English term whipman refers
to the whip that is (in some cases, anyway) the emblem of office, though
there's a distinct parallel with the use of 'leader' and 'whip' in US
legislative parlance!

> Cook - ooth'na or uh'hon or u'hon or ohan'cigre ? - literally means:
> "cook"?

ushna (or ushnoN?) ???
u'haN 'cook; to cook'
si'gre 'track'

> Tail Dancer - sin'de or cin'de - literally means: "tail" "?"

siN(iN)'de 'tail' (probably a long iN)

> Water Carrier - ne'athin ? - literally means: "?"

niN(iN)'-adhiN 'water' + 'to have'

> Head Singer - hun'kahonga ? - literally means: "circle"? "leader"

xu'ka-hoNga 'singer' + 'leader' The x here is a voiceless velar (actually
uvular in articulation) fricative.  Also a verb, e.g., in the Dorsey texts
e'wexuka 'I sing for them', iN'xuka=i=ga 'sing for me', etc.  I don't know
the contrast between xu'ka and waaN', both rendered 'to sing' in English.

> Lady Singer - uthsa'ze or hola'ze - literally means: "?"

I don't recognize these forms.  l for gdh or xdh usually suggests Osage or
Kaw sources, as does ths if it means ts.  It looks like there might be a
root -xdhaze (Os. -(x)laze) involved.