Woman's Friend

[Koontz John E]

Here's another interesting Dakota term that I haven't seen a parallel for
elsewhere in Mississippi Valley Siouan.

tha'was^e 'a woman's female friend'
tha'was^etku 'her friend, a female's friend'

It's not clear why tha- is accented here.  I would assume that the
underlying form was awa's^e, but it seems to be

was^e' 'a woman's female friend, corresponding to kho'la [i.e., for a
man]; a woman's sister-in-law, thus a word used if persons are not on very
good terms'.

Buechel compares mas^e' 'a brother-in-law'.

Buechel's comment on not being on good tgerms is not clear.  I think he
means that one might call a sister-in-law this if one wasn't on good terms
with her, instead of 'sister-in-law'.

s^c^ephaN'ku 'her sister-in-law'

However, maybe it's the other way around, because he explains mas^e' as

mas^e' 'a man's brother-in-law.  It is used if they are on very good
terms'

And that leads to

ma's^ke 'a friend.  It is usedd by women as men say kho'la.
thama's^keku 'her female friend'

This time the accent is not initial in the tha-form, but it is in the
simple stem.

Incidentally, the term for 'man's brother-in-law' is different from this,
too:

thaNhaN'ku 'his wife's brother; his sister's husband'


John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz