Omaha and Lakota Words

[Rory M Larson]

David wrote:
>                I wonder if wiN and Omaha mi are cognate, despite the 
difference 
> in meaning.  Lakota 'moon' is wi, without nasalization.


David, I'm pretty sure they are cognate in this case, both with the 
meaning of 'woman'.  We are dealing with two separate roots here, but in 
Omaha they are similar enough to be confused.

              Lakhota           Omaha
              -------           -----

  sun/moon      wi               mi`(N)

  woman         wiN              mi_(N)

I've recently established, tentatively, with one speaker, that there is a 
pronunciation difference between the two terms in Omaha.  The 'sun/moon' 
term apparently has an emphatic, falling pitch or tone, while the 'woman' 
term is more drawn out and level in pitch.  In terms of the long/short 
vowel dichotomy researchers have been looking at in other languages, I 
have been supposing that the emphatic, falling pitch is short, while the 
more level pitch is long.  (There is a third, rising and falling tone in 
Omaha which is much less common, and which is neither of these.)  However, 
this interpretation clashes with what is recorded in Carolyn Quintero's 
Osage Dictionary and in Helmbrecht/Lehmann's Hocak Teaching Materials, 
both of which have the vowel for the 'sun/moon' term as long.  Perhaps 
Omaha has reinterpreted the original system so that length itself is no 
longer a factor.

In Lakhota, wi and wiN can easily be distinguished by nasalization or not, 
because /w/ is an oral consonant.  In Dhegiha, this /w/ has become /m/, 
which can flavor the following vowel with its nasality and ruin the 
distinction.

As an added complication, the old mi_(N) term for 'woman' has dropped out 
of the vocabulary in Omaha, and I believe in Dhegiha generally.  It has 
been replaced by *wak?o, which is wa?u` in Omaha.  The mi_(N) term remains 
in about a half-dozen compounds, where it sometimes contrasts with nu`, 
'man', which is cognate with Lakhota blo.  But the fact that it doesn't 
exist as a separate word means that native speakers may not recognize that 
mi_(N) means 'woman'.  In the case of mi_(N)-x^u_ga, some of them 
apparently rationalized the mi_(N) as mi`(N), understood as 'moon', and 
developed the moon dream conception as an explanation for the existence of 
the mi_(N)-x^u_ga.

Rory
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