Omaha and Lakota Words

[Scott Collins]

In relation to Umon'hon'ti, the Sacred Pole of the Omaha, Riddinton from 1993 states, "...Umon'hon'ti is a single person in whom these halves have joined." This statement is talking about the nature of the Sacred Pole, i.e ceremonial object, an the coming together of the Above World and the Middle World into one being/ceremonial object. Are there any other examples of this dual nature in Omaha words.
 
On another subject, I also wanted to ask if there are Omaha stories about Morning Star that are similar in any fashion to the Hochunk stories of Morning Star and Evening Star. Anyone on the list that may have information regarding this in Osage, Quawpa, Ponca and Kansa-Kaw also?  
 


Scott P. Collins


--- On Mon, 8/22/11, Rory M Larson <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:


From: Rory M Larson <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu>
Subject: Re: Omaha and Lakota Words
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Date: Monday, August 22, 2011, 6:16 PM


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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