Omaha and Lakota Words

[Cumberland, Linda A]

Not for Dhegiha, but I have a nifty and rather lengthy one for 
Assiniboine, if you're interested. -Linda

Quoting Scott Collins <saponi360 at yahoo.com>:

> 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
>