another Siouan question + 'AHI'

[Clive Bloomfield]

On 08/12/2007, at 9:40 PM, Clive Bloomfield wrote:

> From (Emil AFRAID-OF-HAWK's) Lakhota version of Ann Nolan Clark's  
> "BRINGER OF THE MYSTERY DOG" (1941)
>
> On Page 62 (ibid.) :

To provide some context : Little Dog, the boy protagonist, has left  
home on a lone quest to earn his manhood-name, and has just come  
across some interesting tracks : those of a man, accompanied by some  
mysterious large four-footed animal. He now recalls having heard  
stories told to his elders by visitors from friendly bands, of  
strange beasts, dog-like, but much larger, (s^uNka wakhaNpi) which  
could be made to carry burdens on their backs. His previous  
excitement at witnessing a buffalo hunt, now pales into insignificance.
>
> 1) : "(S^uNka Cik'ala lila waNkayeic'iye.) Ithokap taku ok'oka  
> woawachiN ichaNteiyapha k'uN he woawachiN lechala kin AHI  
> ichiyutakunis^ni na lila sutaya yuze."
>
> 2) : [=(Little Dog jumped high into the air.) His present state of  
> emotions, WHEN JUXTAPOSED WITH (lit : 'brought to')(??) the  
> excitement which had struck his heart previously,
>           diminished (that) by comparison (ichi- 'together") to  
> nothingness/annihilated the latter by comparison (??), and held him  
> firmly in its grip.]
>
>> NOLAN CLARK's original English reads :

>> 3) : "Little Dog jumped up. The excitement that he had felt before  
>> was nothing to that which clutched him now."


I am by no means sure that, In my translation in 2), (which is an  
attempt to determine the exact significance of the Lakhota words), I  
am by no means sure that I have rendered that
('di-transitive'/'second reciprocal'?) "ichi-" verb-form correctly,  
and would appreciate any observations people might care to make on  
that, or on this sentence as a whole.

I am also quite puzzled by the precise significance of 'ahi'  in the  
sentence above, a word which seems to be so frequently used by this  
author in comparisons (or at least in juxtapositions of some kind),  
as to be almost a mannerism!
(I am aware of the use of 'a-' compounded with verbs of motion to  
mean : "bring/convey', and also of 'ahi-' added to certain verbs to  
express direction, as detailed by B&D at p.96, Sect.115).

Is 'ahi' being used in some sort of Serial-Verb construction here, I  
wonder?

Is 'woawachiN lechala kiN' actually the subject of  
'ichitakunishni' (as it is of 'yuze'), and  
'ithokap........ichaNteiyapha k'uN' its object, as I thought?



I will track down & post some other examples of sentences using 'ahi'  
by this author, when time permits.


A note at the back of these old B.I.A. readers, by Willard W. Beatty,  
Director of Education, in July 1943, states :

"The preparation of material in the native languages is under the  
immediate direction of Dr. EDWARD A. KENNARD, (.......) EMIL AFRAID- 
OF-HAWK, an experienced interpreter of the older generation,  
translated this series of books."

An Emil Afraid-Of-Hawk is mentioned twice (pp. 84 & 89) in the  
biography "Fool's Crow" by Thomas E. Mails (Uni of Nebraska Press,  
1979), as the father of Frank Fool's Crow's sweetheart & bride,  
Fannie Afraid-Of-Hawk, (Emil's youngest daughter), in the year 1916.

Best regards,

Clive.


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