Aug. 28th, 2006 03:56 pm
Nor any a drop to drink
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As it continues to rain outside (for real this time, not some pretend sprinkle), I find myself wondering what connection, if any, there may be between Osage nížu "rain" and níi "water". Or between the latter and níiõpapa "lightning". I guess there's no way of knowing without getting my hands on a comparative dictionary of Proto-Siouan or the like.
Níi, btw, shows up in some surprising compounds such as níixoce "ash" (lit. "water-gray") and níiskuðe "salt" (lit. "water-sweet"; go ponder that for a while!). By contrast, níišoce "fog, haze" (lit. "water-smoke") makes more sense, but it's interesting to me that none of these actually denotes a fluid.
Contrast that to, say, Thai compounds headed by ná:m (generally reduced to nám), e.g. námka:m "semen" (lit. "water [of] kama"; also ná:mrák "water [of] love"), námphŷng "honey" (lit. "water [of] bee"), ná:msàlàt "salad dressing; mayo" (lit. "water [of] salad"), etc. Even namta:n "sugar" (lit. "water [of] sugar palm") makes sense once you consider how palm sugar is boiled down from sap. Námwă:n or "sweet water" also means more-or-less what you'd expect, namely "soft drink".
On the other hand Osage hpéecenii or "fire-water" does mean "whiskey", exactly as watching TV Westerns has led you to expect. (Beer, on the other hand, is hkáwacéženii "horse-pee-water".)
Níi, btw, shows up in some surprising compounds such as níixoce "ash" (lit. "water-gray") and níiskuðe "salt" (lit. "water-sweet"; go ponder that for a while!). By contrast, níišoce "fog, haze" (lit. "water-smoke") makes more sense, but it's interesting to me that none of these actually denotes a fluid.
Contrast that to, say, Thai compounds headed by ná:m (generally reduced to nám), e.g. námka:m "semen" (lit. "water [of] kama"; also ná:mrák "water [of] love"), námphŷng "honey" (lit. "water [of] bee"), ná:msàlàt "salad dressing; mayo" (lit. "water [of] salad"), etc. Even namta:n "sugar" (lit. "water [of] sugar palm") makes sense once you consider how palm sugar is boiled down from sap. Námwă:n or "sweet water" also means more-or-less what you'd expect, namely "soft drink".
On the other hand Osage hpéecenii or "fire-water" does mean "whiskey", exactly as watching TV Westerns has led you to expect. (Beer, on the other hand, is hkáwacéženii "horse-pee-water".)
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