Lakota ki- 'to become by itself'

Mon Dec 10 18:30:59 UTC 2007

Here's my two cents on ki- 'to become by itself', examples first, in random order:

  ki-ska 'to turn white'
  ki-sake   'to get hard, stiff'
  ki-suta  'to get hard'
  ki-wichas^a  'to have become a man, to have completed growing up'
  ki-wiNyaN  'to have become a woman'
  ki-thamahecha  'to get skinny'
  ki-haNska  'to get tall'
  ki-ksapa  'he got smart'
  ki-luzahaN 'to get fast'
  ki-bleza  'to become conscious'
  ki-phaNs^phaNz^ela   'to get soft'
  ki-ni 'to come back to life'
  ki-'okhate  'to become warm inside, like when turning up the heat'

  ki-was^tecaka ye!  'behave yourself!'
  pheta ki ki-sni 'the fire went dead/out (by itself)'
  thaspaNzi ki ki-phaNs^phaNz^ela 'the orange has ripened'
  wakhalapi ki ki-sni  'the coffee is cold/has gotten cold'

  There is a second usage of ki- with meteorological expressions, which, however, is rendered by the slightly different translation 'to become/happen suddenly, unexpectedly'. Is this still "the same" ki-? I'd say at least this usage is close enough to the above ki- to postulate a historical connection.

  ki-mag^az^u 'all of a sudden it rains, unexpectedly' (classed as an "old word" by informant)
  ki-mas^te 'the sun came out all of a sudden'
  ki-wahiNhe  'all of a sudden it is snowing'

  The lexical productivity of ki- appears to be restricted. Statives are most easily compatible with ki-, but by far not all of them are. For instance, the following combinations are ungrammatical, among many others:
  *ki-khate 'to get hot'
  *ki-'owothaNla  'to get straight'

  It could be that ki- is actually completive, so that 'to have become by itself' is a better translation. Since I inadvertently kicked this file out of the "active" materials that needed double-checking with native speakers years ago, I couldn't pursue this issue further. I hope that didn't happen with too many of my grammar files!
  As for Jimm's suggestion of categorizing ki- as an instrumental prefix, that's exactly what I had in mind while working on this element. At least, this type of ki- seems to go nicely with semantically similar prefixes such as na- 'to become by itself' and ka- 'to do/become by itself' (yes, there IS an intransitive ka-). Alternatively, ki- could be treated as an aspect marker. I've also considered connections with benefactive/possessive ki-, but that didn't turn out to be particularly illuminating.

  Regina

""Alfred W. Tüting"" <ti at fa-kuan.muc.de> wrote:  Thanks a lot, Bruce,  only now I know that I should've remembered _kizuzeca_, at least. Now, I found still another one: kimakxa (B.-M. "turn into soil, as anything rotten in the ground"). 

  Alfred

  P.S. I wonder if kimimila (butterfly) has smth to do with this issue (mila??)

    Am 10.12.2007 um 13:47 schrieb shokooh Ingham:

  I know kimathathanka 'turn into a buffalo', kizuzeca 'turn into a snake', kiwitko 'go mad', kiwanice 'turn into nothing' and kiwe 'turn into blood'; a very useful prefix.  You can also use ic'icag^a/mic'icag^e 'make oneself into', but I think that is more conscious, whereas the first is non-intentional perhaps.
Bruce

""Alfred W. Tüting"" <ti at fa-kuan.muc.de> wrote:  > Fascinating examples from Clive.  The use of a- to mean 'more than' is an interesting one in Lakota.  It seems to be not totally productive and is a bit illusive, but one sees examples of it.  I have  a feeling that it is more frequent in Dakota, but can't think on what basis I have this feeling.  Does anyone else have this impression?
Bruce <   

  It's my impression that with regard to productiveness, it's maybe comparable to the use of ki- (in the sense of "become", "turn to") e.g. kiaguyapi (to turn into bread). Does anyone happen to know of other renderings like "turn into stone" (petrify) or such??

  BTW, this a- in the sense of "more than" seems to express a "general idea" found also in other languages. E.g. think of Hungarian adessive  -nÃ¡l/-nÃ©l (at) also used as comparative (e.g. ennÃ©l jobb - better than this).

  Alfred

""Alfred W. TÃ¼ting"" <ti at fa-kuan.muc.de> wrote:  > "LochiNpi kiN he iyes^ akhiphapi kta thawat'elyapi na iyoks^ica uNpi 
> kiN he e athawat'elyapi s^ni kiN hecha."e

> [=As for themselves, they preferred facing hunger,
to living in 
> sadness (i.e. loneliness) - such were their (feelings) or 'such was 
> their situation'.]
> (lit. : they felt willing to face the prospect of hunger, and they 
> did not feel a greater willingness to be living in desolation - 
> that's the way it was).  

  (LoÄ‹inpi kin he iyeá¹¡ aá¸±ip'a pi kta á¹«awat'elya pi na
iyokiá¹¡ica un pi kin he e
  aá¹«awat'elya pi á¹¡ni kin hÃ©Ä‹a.)

  (...)

  BTW, I like your reading of a-á¹«awat'elyA <- a-waá¹¡te (better than), it's very
  convincing.

  Alfred

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