cross-linguistic metaphors (fwd)

[Jill Greer]

Bryan,
 
Perhaps one might also gloss the Jiwere form as "makes speech clear" 
as in taking the confusion of an unknown tongue, and making it
understood (or clear) to the listener.  Still,  that seems a different
metaphor.  Cross-sensory description (sight/hearing) is not the same as 
intelligence vs. stupidity...  I liked Rory's comment about the
potential innate bias in such a concept anyway,  especially considering
that individuals who Europeans might have once labeled "idiots" could be
seen as possessing special qualities and different, rather than inferior
"intelligence."  And different elders commented about a mentally
retarded individual that traditionally,  such a person would be taught
to do work or be "useful" to their abilities.  Unfortunately the
conversation was in English, and no Ioway or Otoe words were used in
that context which might contribute to the discussion here.  
 
Where would we find a native speaker of a Siouan language who isn't
potentially influenced by having the English metaphor already known in
their bilingual speech repertoire???
 
And just for curiosity,  are there any other metaphors believed to be
universal?
 
For us, light/bright also equates good vs. dark/evil,  and quick vs.
slow can be mapped to wit instead of visible activity.  
 
 
Jill Greer
 
 
>>> Bryan James Gordon <linguista at gmail.com> 2/22/2011 2:58 PM >>>




But since this is a Siouanist list, what about Siouan and other native
North American languages? For Omaha, we have wazhiN-ska listed in the
Stabler-Swetland dictionary for 'smart/intelligent', along with 'wise',
'knowledge', 'clever' and 'sober'. wazhiN seems to mean something like
'disposition', 'will', 'mentality' or 'anger', perhaps like the early
Germanic meaning of /mood/. ska means 'white', and is also said to mean
'clear' or 'bright', although I've never been able to make that
connection. So the term actually seems to mean something like
"white-disposition", with the main implication of wisdom and sobriety of
conduct, not so much what we're looking for here as the ability to grasp
ideas quickly. No word is listed for 'stupid', and the closest I can get
is 'foolish', which merges with groNriN, 'crazy', as the opposite of
wisdom and sobriety. 


What if the -ska in wazhíⁿska is not the same as "white"? There are
also other words, like tápuska, iyéska, which confer the impression that
it might be nothing more than an agent-nominaliser, perhaps historically
related to shkoⁿ "active/move/do" (which would go some way towards
explaining the apparent part-cognate-part-loanword set hethúshka iróska
ilóⁿska where some languages have s and others sh). I think I recall
hearing some words in Macy that indicated a productive use of this
suffix on verbal predicates that don't show any signs of taking -ska in
either Dorsey or the Swetland-Stabler lexicon. I've even heard an
interpretation of "pahaska" (Pawhuska) as meaning "person who stands
forward" instead of "white head/scalp", although that might be a
creative back-formation.

On the other hand, however, the Báxoje word for translator is "ich^é
brédhe" "speaks clearly", which hints that clarity if not colour may
well have something to do with the semantics of this family of concepts.
I think what we need is either luck in finding a section of discourse
documented that confirms or rejects the hypothesis, or a native speaker
who has the relevant intuition. 

- Bryan
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