my two cents

[Anthony Grant]

Regarding money and counting, Dougf Parks informed me way back that 'box' = thousand in Pawnee and that irt referred to the silver dollars used in treaty payments (I don't know if it also does this in Arikara, or in more southerly Caddoan languages).  So the metaphor is shared between Chiwere, Dhegiha and Pawnee at least.  It looks like a loan-translation which was disseminated by people bilingual in more than one Native language (which raises the question: what's 'a thousand' in Plains Sign Language?).   One finds similar metaphors all over the US: both Hanis Coos and Hupa (and intervening languages??) used 'a stick' for 'hundred', for instance (I think there may be a connection with dentalium shells there).  

Dave Costa told me that Miami /ayaapia/ 'buck' also means dollar - loan translation from English?    Doug has observed to me that at least some money terms in Pawnee are straight from English /tupits/ for 50 cents, for instance.  

Anthony

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