Lakota Concept of Zero

[Rory M Larson]

> Rory - what do you think about the use of kku'ge 'box' for 'thousand'?
> Does this imply that 1000 is a new concept, or is it a new word for an
old
> concept?  How widespread is 'box' in this sense?  I just noticed in the
> texts that kku'ge often appears glossed 'box' when a numerical
> interpretation is clearly meant.

Good question!  The main reference I have is Fletcher and La Flesche, p.
617, and looking at it, I see where I made an error in my thesis referring
to it, the correction of which tends to favor your view that Siouan
languages did in fact have high numbers prior to contact:

"A thousand dollars was called kku'ge wiN (kku'ge, "box"; wiN, "one"), the
name originating from the custom of packing this number of silver dollars
in a small box for convenience of transportation.  In the case of payments
to Indian tribes by government agents the term for the number 1,000 was
gthe'boNhiwiNttoNga (gthe'boN, "ten"; hiwiN, "progressing toward one;"
wiNttoNga, "big")."

So it looks like they did have a native term for 1000, as well as the
shorter and more slangy trade calque "box".  This agrees very well with the
information David Costa posted yesterday (12:49PM) on Miami-Illinois.
Apparently native terms existed, but the local "box" term was probably used
for international dealings in each local pidgin.

Dating this usage is more problematic.  In my thesis, I had somehow
confounded F&LF's two separate statements into the notion that kku'ge
referred to the government treaty payments, which F&LF in fact deny.  On
the other hand, Howard's "The Ponca Tribe", cited by Jonathan Holmes, makes
that very claim for the Ponca.  Tom Leonard's Ponca informants support that
view.  Jimm Goodtracks' IOM informants refer it to Army ammunition boxes,
which also implies the government.  Summing this up with the Miami-Illinois
information offered by David, and considering the crude feel of the word, I
would favor the view that the international heyday of the "box" term was
early as he suggested, probably prior to 1820, and hence before the Omaha
treaty payments.  The term must have evolved separately in different
languages after that.  Thus, the Ponca used it for the treaty payments; the
Omaha did not, but kept it as an alternate numeric term along with a much
more windy native term; and the Iowa-Oto-Missouria transferred it to
1000-round Army ammunition boxes, as well as using it as the number 1000.

Rory