Plains language pimping

[muckefuck]

I'm having to restrain myself from sending a full-on linguo-geek mash note to the creator of this websuite. I soon found that you can't really Google "Siouan" without his name popping up again and again--and that's not a bad thing. He's knowledgeable, well-spoken, funny, and loves to talk about his subject--in nitty-gritty detail. A lot of sites will tell you that the origin of the name "Nebraska" is a Siouan name for the Platte River. Not many, though, will spend a full page speculating on which dialect of Siouan was the source--or go on to point out the Ponca, Pawnee, and Lakhota names as well!

I highly recommend paging down to the bottom, by the way. He has what must be the most extensive discussion of the origins of "Kemo Sabe" ever written. (In a nutshell for you lazy gits: Potawatomi gimozabe "secretly-looks", possibly meaning a spy, a scout, or just someone wearing a mask.) And he has the best answer I've ever seen to people who want to give their child (or their dog or their RV) an "Indian name", complete with a fascinating discussion of native naming customs and suggested alternatives--including "Winona"!

The more I look at his data for the closely related Omaha-Ponca dialects, btw, the more I realise just how freaky Osage is, at least as Quintero describes it. One of these days, I need to devote a whole page to my favourite word so far, hkǫbra.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

This is great! I especially liked his answer to "I want to give my RV an Indian name".

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Because I can already see my friends coming over trying to call MY dog if _I_ named her "IN'?edhas^iz^e" ...

"Come here inge ... indehz ... in'edziheaf ... Rover!"