Omaha and Lakota Words

Wed Aug 24 17:09:53 UTC 2011

Same in Lakota.  Also tȟaŋkal yaŋkapi ’to sit outside (the tipi)’  No blushing.  As they say in Arabic laa Hayaa fil'ilm 'there is no shame in science'.  At least I think it's Arabic.
Bruce

--- On Wed, 24/8/11, Mary C Marino <mary.marino at usask.ca> wrote:

From: Mary C Marino <mary.marino at usask.ca>
Subject: Re: Omaha and Lakota Words
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Date: Wednesday, 24 August, 2011, 7:42

  The expression prevalent among Dakota speakers in Canada for the
    menses is išnathi  'she
      camps/dwells alone'. (išna
      'alone', thi 'dwell/camp 3sg').   Dakota-speaking women
    would sometimes use the Dakota expression to me while conversing in
    English.  If they knew I was having my period, and I happened to
    mention the moon, they might joke about that, but I never heard or
    elicited any local Dakota term for menstruation which included wi
      'moon'. 

    I hope I have put no one to the blush.

    Mary 

    On 23/08/2011 11:02 AM, Greer, Jill wrote:

      I can't contribute much either, except the obvious biological association between the length of the lunar cycle and the length of the human female's menstrual cycle (28 days for each),  not unique to Siouan culture, of course.  Isn't there also a euphemism to refer to the menstrual period that refers to the moon, or am I thinking of another tribe here?  (Readers familiar with Ishi of  northern California might recall the taboo on moonlight touching a man's face during sleep, along with associations of women's reproductive powers as spiritually dangerous to others, and a connection to the moon.

Basso similarly notes Western Apache speakers as saying "My grandmother is visiting" if a woman had to inform her husband why she could not sleep with him at that time,  referencing Grandmother Moon.

Mary CrowDog talks about "moon/woman" power in her autobiographical book for Lakhota culture in the 20th century.   More info is probably out there.  Anyone care to break with our own cultural delicacy and broach the subject?

Jill

Jill D. Greer
Department of Social Science
MSSU
Joplin, MO 65801
Greer-j at mssu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU [mailto:owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU] On Behalf Of Rankin, Robert L
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 5:05 PM
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Subject: RE: Omaha and Lakota Words

I can't contribute much to this discussion, but there are a couple of things that can be said.

1. wiN is the first syllable of the common Siouan term for 'woman'. wiN and min ~ mi are cognates.

2. wiN (miN ~ mi) is also the reconstructible term for 'orb' and is the basis for the terms for both 'sun' and 'moon'.  Dakotan wi is very irregular.  The word has nasalization in every other Siouan language for which nasality is phonemic.  Dakotan 'star', wichaxpe is similarly irregular; cf. Kansa mikkak?e.

3. The Kansa term is miixoge.  'Badger' is xoNga, so that is quite different.

4. The Common Siouan 'potential, irrealis', kte, has its source in the Proto-Siouan word for 'to want'.  It retains that meaning in Biloxi, Crow and some other languages.  'Want' is grammaticalized as a future tense or potential mode marker in many languages including English, Greek and many Balkan languages, so there's nothing strange here.

5. I have no idea whether these terms refer to femininity, the moon, etc. or whether the entire explanation might be folk etymology.  Someone more familiar with the cultures may be better at explaining these things than a hard core linguist.

Bob

________________________________________
From: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU [owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU] on behalf of ROOD DAVID S [David.Rood at Colorado.EDU]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 12:48 PM
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Subject: Re: Omaha and Lakota Words

Scott, I have never thought about trying to do an etymology of winkte, but Mark has given me some ideas.  WiN is indeed a very common morpheme for 'woman', used as the final element in almost all women's names, for example.  Mark's guess at xti is wrong, however -- that would be xci or xce in Lakota.  kte is the irrealis mode marker, usually glossed future tense in English, so the meaning could be something like 'will be a woman'
or 'might be a woman'.
        I wonder if wiN and Omaha mi are cognate, despite the difference in meaning.  Lakota 'moon' is wi, without nasalization.

        David

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Mon, 22 Aug 2011, Mark J Awakuni-Swetland wrote:

        Aloha Scott,
We have generally glossed miqu'ga as:

mi-moon
qu'ga- marked

Qu'ga is also the Omaha name for badger, distinguished by the clear "mark"
on its face.

So, "marked by the moon", referring to the feminine/female qualities
of that celestial being in Omaha cosmology.

I would hazard a stab at winxti from an Omaha perspectiv as:

win-feminine
xti-very, really

Or, "very female".

Mark

Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology & Ethnic Studies Native American
Studies Program Liaison University of Nebraska Department of
Anthropology
841 Oldfather Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0368

http://omahalanguage.unl.edu
http://omahaponca.unl.edu
Phone 402-472-3455
FAX: 402-472-9642

Scott Collins <saponi360 at yahoo.com>
Sent by: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
08/21/11 06:34 PM
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Subject
Omaha and Lakota Words

I was wondering if anyone may have a breakdown of the word mexoga in
Omaha and the word winkte in Lakota; i.e such as root words and
literal meanings?

Scott P. Collins

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