Biloxi Words and Tutelo-Saponi

[Scott Collins]

This is what I got from a Choctaw friend in Oklahoma:
 
"The word our community uses for cedar is chibolichi, so I am not sure the origin of the one you have, but it is probably one an linguist working with Choctaws wrote down. I learned the language via community speakers/family members so many times their interpretations of words/phrases is different from Choctaw dictionaries/grammars compiled many generations ago. The language evolves and most tribal language dictionaries have not, thus making many terms obsolete in terms of how they are used with contemporary speakers. It is probably factual that the term you have for cedar was used back in the 1800s and may even be used with some Choctaw bands today, but is would not be known in our community. Cypress in our dialect is as you have written it and has multiple spellings. Kolo is literally "leaves shaking about". The Sha(n) part is lost to me. Akithano (I don't know). I may just be an isolate noun pairing with no defined meaning. There of course are Choctaw
 words that like English is are simply isolated nouns though most are not. Talinumpa nowa for instance. Cellphone or "metal talking walking". I realize you are aware of these types of things. Hope this helps and hope you are well. Ced" 

 
So now we just need to figure out what sha(n) means, kolo meaning "leaves shaking about", in order to get to a word for cypress in Tutelo-Saponi.
 


Scott P. Collins
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WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Evil Is An Outer Manifestation Of An Inner Struggle

“Men and women become accomplices to those evils they fail to oppose.”

"The greater the denial the greater the awakening."

--- On Sun, 5/13/12, Rankin, Robert L. <rankin at KU.EDU> wrote:


From: Rankin, Robert L. <rankin at KU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Biloxi Words and Tutelo-Saponi
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2012, 4:36 PM


Here in Kansas the farmers call osage oranges "hedge apples".  The tree is often called simply "hedge".  It makes a forbidding boundary because of those long, nasty thorns.  Which reminds me, "thorn apple" is another term I've heard.  And, yes, Tutelo should have retained the /xąte/ or /xǫte/ pronunciation pretty much intact.  We project that the original meaning was 'juniper'.

Bob

________________________________
From: Siouan Linguistics [SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] on behalf of Scott Collins [saponi360 at YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 3:30 PM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: Biloxi Words and Tutelo-Saponi

I know that among our people of Saponi that the "Cedar" a.k.a. Juniper and the Cypress are sacred trees used for various things such as guarding graves and protection. Seems that there is no actual true cedar species in North America that is native. The trees refered to as cedars are actually either cypress trees or juniper trees. It is interesting that you bring up the subject of the Osage Orange tree, I was raised to call it the Horse Apple tree.

/xąte/ or /xǫte/   this is your projected word in Tutelo-Saponi for cedar correct?





Scott P. Collins
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Evil Is An Outer Manifestation Of An Inner Struggle

“Men and women become accomplices to those evils they fail to oppose.”

"The greater the denial the greater the awakening."

--- On Sun, 5/13/12, Rankin, Robert L. <rankin at KU.EDU> wrote:

From: Rankin, Robert L. <rankin at KU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Biloxi Words and Tutelo-Saponi
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Date: Sunday, May 13, 2012, 1:30 PM

There's a proto-Siouan 'cedar' word.  I'll get it for you.

"Yellow wood" in the Dhegiha languages is reserved for the wood of the Osage orange.  It was also called "the bow wood tree" because of the resilience of the branches.  This is why it's called "bois d'arc" in French.  Cedar was considered holy among the Siouan tribes of the plains, but I don't know how far back East this goes.

The udi term in Biloxi is from proto-Siouan *hu:de which refers to the base or trunk of any object.  It occurs in lots of tree names.

>From the Comparative Siouan Dictionary:

GLOSS[ juniper, red cedar

PSI[ *xąte

MAndan[ óxtąre ~ óxtą ‘cedar’ H-134

MA[ oxtą́ ‘pine tree?’ C

MA[ oxtą́• ‘sage?’ C



PMV[ *xą́te

LAkota[ xąté ‘cedar’ C

DAkota[ †xąté “ḣaŋté” ‘cedar’ R-162a

Omaha-Ponca[ †xąde “áxoⁿdepa” ‘wrist guard’ FLF-225

Kanza[ xą́ǰe ‘cedar’ RR

OSage[ †xą́ce “xoⁿ´dse” ‘red cedar’ LF-219a

QUapaw[ xtté ‘cedar’ RR

QU[ xǫttéhi ‘cedar’ JOD



OTHLGS[ JEK: Iroquoian, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga ohnéhtaʔ, Huron “xahⁿdéhtaʔ”,

Wyandot “andeta”, Tuscarora uhtéhneh, Mithun (1984, 270).



COMmentary[ The OP term refers to a packet strapped to the sacred (cedar) pole:

|a-| ‘on, upon’, |xąde| ‘cedar’, |-pa| ‘locative (?)’. (Analysis from JEK).

The BI term for ‘cedar’ is borrowed from Western Muskogean. QU stress has

shifted; it must have been initial earlier in order for the |*t| to geminate.

The MA root appears to exhibit an irregular syncope.  Cedar has sacred

properties among all or most of the Siouan-speaking peoples.


Note the look-alikes in Iroquoian languages.  Numeroąus tree names are widespread terms.


>From these comparative data I would project the Tutelo word to be very similar, probably something very close to /xąte/ or /xǫte/, where /x/ is a gutteral sound like the "ch" of German Ach!  Or Achtung!, words everybody knows from the movies.


The wasti word in Tutelo corresponds to the general Siouan term for 'pine', but could possibly mean 'cedar' also.


Bob
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