Looking for "thunder" and "lightning" information

Tue Oct 29 10:01:38 UTC 2013

Hi Sky,

here are all the words I know of in Hoocąk that have something to do with thunder and lightning:

k’oo - thunder (used as noun or verb)
rujax - loud flash of lightning, loud thunderclap, sound of a thunderstorm

(jąąp) hakiwares - forked lightning
hojąp(re) - struck by lightning
hotahąhąp - lightning storm off in the distance
jąąjąp - lighting, flashes of lightning

... and apart from the weather phenomena:
Wakąja - Thunder Clan

Anyway, I hope this helps.
Best,
Iren

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:21:10 -0500
From: sky at OMTRIBE.ORG
Subject: Looking for "thunder" and "lightning" information
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu

I’m looking for some feedback (and cognates if applicable) on some terms for “thunder” and “lightning.” For the thunder term, I am trying to find information on Maximilian’s terms for thunder which are “gron-gron” and “wahkonda-gron-gron”.  I am trying to figure out what his term “gron” is.  Maximilian notes the “on” is pronounced as it is in French which would be our nasal “ą”.  So this term would be “grą” or the reduplicated version “grągrą.”  Any suggestions on what that may be?  I have two theories in mind and both come from other terms from Maximilian.  First is his term “gra-ah” (gra’a) which he has as shout or “give the warhoop.”  The other is his term “groͣn-rä” (email formatting won’t let me show the accented “á” above the “o” like the source has it) which would be “grąre” which he translates as “great.”  Those are just speculations right now.  It should also be noted that he gives lightning as “wáhkonda-gron” (same as thunder but without the reduplication).  And it may be a stretch but I’m wondering if this “grą” is somehow related to our current “k’o” for thunder. Any thoughts? Maximilian’s term for lightning seems to be a variant of thunder so figuring out thunder will help with lightning.  So my question about lightning isn’t about that variant but another.  Nowadays we have: rugri/rugrį Then I was reading Dorsey’s “The Religions of Siouan Tribes” and he notes, “The Kansa tell the following: During the first thunder-storm of the year, the Lu or Thunder-Being people put a quantity of green cedar on a fire, making a dense smoke.”  With “Lu”, he is talking about a Kaw clan.  And with “r” and “l” being interchangeable in many materials, it has me thinking of our “rugri” and has me wondering if our “rugri” perhaps says “thunder beings returned home (or here?)” (ru/lu – thunder beings + gri (return home). Does anyone have any information on that? And one more thing while I’m thinking about it.  In the same paper I mentioned above by Dorsey, he is a big fan of “Wakąnda” being translated as “great serpent” (waką + dana) although he does go through a few other possibilities.  Still, “great serpent” seems to be the translation he likes the best.  I can see how he came to that conclusion.  But he also notes that “In the Dakota language, wa-kan’ means mysterious, wonderful, incomprehensible;”  And in “Early Western Travels – 1748-1846, Vol. 24 (pages 223-224), Maximilian (via Thwaites) writes, “This name is composed of two words; and, therefore, is not to be written as one.  The first word, uakan, less correctly wakan,  is the expression for god, divine, supernatural; the second, tanka, not tunka, means great.” So that got me thinking about our term waxoñita/xoñita for sacred/holy and I am curious if that “waxo-“ is related to the “waką” that Dorsey mentions and if the idea is really closer to the “great mysterious one” rather than “great serpent.”  Or do they both mean the same thing and it just depends on what sense you are using?  I can only think of one other instance off the top of my head where “xo-“ is used by itself to indicate sacred and that is Jimm Goodtracks’ translation of William Whitman’s term “mixoge” (berdache…mi- (female) + xo- (sacred) + -ge (quality of)). This is probably a loaded question but I’m interested in any information anyone might have on this. Sky Campbell, B. A.Language DirectorOtoe-Missouria Tribe580-723-4466 ext. 111sky at omtribe.org 

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