Lakota ki- 'to become by itself'

["Alfred W. Tüting"]

This is very interesting and convincing, indeed, thanks. As an old- 
fashioned linguistic purist myself, I'm afraid to state that this  
appears to be the way languages generally develop through (modern) use.

May I grasp the opportunity here, Jan, asking your authentic view on  
the use of "ki-is^tamnihaNpi (hiNgle)" in your fine translation of  
Emma LaRocque's poem "Where did she go?"?

"(...) Ite na ho kin hena / tokahe anpao kinhan / wakalyapi mitawa  
kin / ki-istamnihanpi hingle (...)"
"(...) Her voices, her faces / that turn my coffee / into a cup of  
tears / with the first wisp of day? (...)"

Ite na ho kin hena
Ṫokahe ánpaó kinhan
waḱalyapi miṫawa kin
ki-iṡtamnihanpi hingle.

I'm already pondering over this special use of ki- since quite some  
time, you know: it caught my eye that, as it seems to me, you thought  
it to be necessary(?)/advisible(?) to use a hyphen and (even) the  
auxiliary verb hinglA together with the main verb. I'd be most  
grateful for any feedback.

Best regards

Alfred




Am 11.12.2007 um 09:20 schrieb Jan Ullrich:

> I think it should be noted here that the meaning of the prefix ki-  
> is not "to become" but "to return to the original state". Notice  
> kini 'to come back to life', not 'to become alive'. The prefix is  
> used with this meaning throughout the text corpus. Most of the words  
> with ki- given in Buechel's dictionary originate in his translation  
> of the Bible History texts (for instance ki-sagye – 'to turn into a  
> cane' is used in the story about Moses) and are not attested by  
> contemporary speakers.
> It is true that some younger speakers today use ki- with the meaning  
> 'to become', but its use is semantically restricted, occurs for  
> instance in kiwichas^a – 'to become a man'. Deloria (in her  
> grammar) defines kiwichas^a as 'to become a man again (like a human  
> who in a tale had appeared in animal shape)' and kiwiNyaN as 'to  
> become a (respectable) woman again'
> In my experience and fieldword data, the prefix is not productive.  
> So I am a bit surprised by some of the words in Regina's list. If  
> the words come from eliciting rather than texts, I would recoment  
> caution and cross checking.
>
> > ki-ska 'to turn white'
>
> Deloria and a couple of my native informants give "to fade (to  
> return to an original white color)" See also Bushotter's sentence:  
> … oowa uN owapi tkha hechunpi chan echakchala kiska s'a – 'when  
> they painted (those things) with colors they often faded'
>
> > ki-suta  'to get hard'
>
> 'to become hard again' as in mazasu s^loyiN na kisuta  'The bullets  
> he melted became hard again'
>
> > ki-bleza  'to become conscious'
>
> 'to become clear-minded or conscious again, come to one's senses',  
> this is often used for 'to sober up'
>
> > ki-was^tecaka ye!  'behave yourself!'
>
> This is a dative. It means "Be nice to him/her." Very common phrase.
>
> > ki-thamahecha  'to get skinny'
> > ki-haNska  'to get tall'
> > ki-ksapa  'he got smart'
> > ki-luzahaN 'to get fast'
> > ki-'okhate  'to become warm inside, like when turning up the heat'
>
> These are all somewhat surprising to me.
>
> Notice also, that for instance kini 'to come back to life' is an  
> active verb (1s wakini), but kibleza 'to conscious again' is treated  
> as a stative verb (1s: makibleze). This makes me wonder whether some  
> of the ki- words actually originate in dative, just as akisni – 'to  
> recover from smth, as a sickness (1s: amakisni)' or iyokiphi 'to be  
> pleased with' 1s: iyomakiphi).
> Regina, what does your data say on conjugating the verbs in your list?
>
> Jan
>

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