Hocąk Vocabulary, ISIL 1880 Format

by Philip Longtail (?)
in collaboration with James Owen Dorsey (?)

The following vocabulary, at present, is not of much value, since it is difficult to interpret the transcription conventions without some kind of key. I reproduce an interpretation of it only because it may contain some words that are otherwise unknown; or it may actually represent a dialect of the language differing from the standard form with which we are now familiar. This is a very peculiar manuscript and often gives deviant forms for Hocąk words, and even appears to use more than one notation system simultaneously. Here are the special characters and the interpretation that I have given them:

The phonetic system used here is that of Radin (see Pronunciation). Strangely, many entries omit the vowels in one or more syllables. The default substitution seems to be 'i' (the Hocąk syllabary omits the vowel 'a' by default), but not in every case, judging from parallels in other word lists. In other cases, the letter 'i' is undotted, and 'e' is written in a way similar to an 'i' or like the Greek letter ε. The strange alternances between 'tch' ~ 'ch', 'š' ~ 'sh', etc., would suggest that words were supplied by different informants at different times, the phonetic conventions differing according to the source; yet the handwritting seems to be consistent throughout. Some of these oddities and difficulties can be seen in the following sample page:

Who was the author of this work? It was submitted to the Smithsoninan as one of Dorsey's papers, leading to the prima facie conclusion that the vocabulary was collected by Dorsey himself. There is little doubt that he initiated the project. However, did he write down the entries or even directly supervise this process? It would hardly seem so, given the oddities of the notational system used, a system not in consistent agreement with any that Dorsey is known to have used. There is one very strong piece of evidence that the whole was given to a Hocąk speaker who knew a fair amount of English and who was to write down both the Hocąk and English wordlists. The evidence in question is the occurance of a spelling error in the English word "grass," which is spelled "glass." The column in which it occurs is clearly written, so there is no confusion as to the orthography of the character 'l'. It hardly seems possible that Dorsey would misspell the word "grass," and if he had, it would hardly have been mispelled that way. It is in Hocąk that 'r' and 'l' alternate as representations of a single phoneme; it is to the Hocąk ear that "grass" and "glass" might sound alike. It appears, therefore, that the English list was dictated to a person of Hocąk speech who was delegated to fill in the Hocąk column as opportunity permitted. Clearly the Hocąk side of the list was written independently of the English column, as it is sometimes seen to have been written with a different pen, or to have been written hurredly and with abbreviations, all in marked contrast to the English side of the list, which was written down in a very deliberate manner lacking in signs of haste.

Table of Contents

Source of the Manuscript

The manuscript does not begin with a page one, but page 77. Numerous page numbers are omitted, although the manuscript seems complete.

Persons (77)

Body (78-81)

Dress and Ornament (82-83)

Dwellings (84-87)

An Oval Lodge (Graphic)
How a Lodge is Assembled (Graphic)

Implements and Utensils (88-89)

Implements, etc., Wooden Ware (90)

Implements, etc., Stone Implements (91)

An Adze (Graphic)

Implements, etc., Materials of Shell, Horn, Bone (92)

Implements, etc., Basket Ware (93) — No Entries

Food (95)

Colors (96)

Numerals, Cardinal Numerals (97-98)

Division of Time (105)

Animals (109)

Animals, Fish (122)

Animals, Fish, Parts of the body (123)

Animals, Insects (125)

Plants (127)

The Firmament (132-133)

Medicines (190)

New Words (192)

(Words) (unpaginated)

Persons

Body (78-81)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: upper eyelid, lower eyelid, earlobe, performations in the ear, septum of the nose, perforation of septum of nose, palate, adam's apple, rump, kneecap, calf of the knee, ankle, ankle bone, instep, heel, toenail, veins or arteries, caul, gall, kidney, lung, spleen, vertebrae.

Dress and Ornament (82-83)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: toga, woman’s basket work cap, antelope skin, otter skin, fringe of skin, sinew, thread of sinew, thread of skin, necklace of shells.

Dwellings (84-87)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: soot, lodge pole, lodge pin, a division of a pueblo, family compartments (set of rooms for family), give name of each room, floor, ceiling, wall, joist, lintel, wooden trap door, chimney, permanent seat (masonry), mortar, court, garden.

Describe dwelling: state how they are arrainged, &cet.

How a lodge is assembled:

Implements and Utensils (88-89)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: bow of horn, sinew on back of bow, not in end of arrow for bowstring, notch in end of arrow for arrowhead, arrow of stone, arrowhead chipper (made of horn), point of arrowhead, arrow shaft of reed, arrow shaft of wood, groove in arrow shaft, arrow shaft straightener (made of horn), arrow shaft polisher (made of stone), cement used in fastening arrowheads, shield, sling, net for catching rabbits, net for catching fish.

Implements, etc., Wooden Ware (90)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: bowl, nortar, pestle, fire drill.

Implements, etc., Stone Implements (91)

axe	masera
adze	wacihigituna
hoe	racegrá
knife	máhina
knife handle	mahe hirahukuserá
knife paint	ho p’oseji or hop’ehija
scraper	wa
pestle, stone	aunina

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: knife edge, borer, mealing stone, large; mealing stone, small; mortar.

Implements, etc., Materials of Shell, Horn, Bone (92)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: turtle back dish, tleshing [sic] implement of notch bone, dressing knife of bone.

Food (95)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: meal of seeds, meal of grasshoppers, mush, stew, juice.

Colors (96)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: brown, green, purple, roan, scarlet, vermillion.

Numerals, Cardinal Numerals (97-98)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: one half (in quantity), a part (in length).

Division of Time (105)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: first half of moon, second half of moon, first quarter of moon, second quarter of moon, third quarter of moon, fourth quarter of moon, dawn, mid-forenoon, dusk, day before yesterday, day after tomorrow, new (adverb), past (time adverb), future time (adverb).

Animals (109)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: armadillo, antelope, bison, bison, wood; beaver, badger, bear, cinnamon,; bear, black; caribou (woodland), caribou (barren ground), chipmunk, cat, wild; cat, civet; deer, mule (Rocky Mountains, and the west).

Animals, Fish (122)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: catfish, crab.

Animals, Fish, Parts of the Body (123)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: mouth, gills, breast-fin, belly-fin, back-fin, tail-fin, roe-fin, bladder, gall.

Animals, Insects (125)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: beetle, caterpillar, cricket, dragonfly, fly, gnat, grasshopper, katydid, locust, louse, maggot, prairie fly (green), snail, spider, tick, wasp (yellow), worm.

Plants (127)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: bud of tree, body or trunk, tree, brush, bushy, a flower, fruit.

The Firmament (132-133)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: clouds, the; sky, horizon, full moon, fog, frost, hail, icicle, tide, dust, sand.

Medicines (190)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: a lame nam, a lame woman, a lame boy, a lame girl, medicine lodge, sweat house, a dream.

New Words (192)

English words for which no Hocąk equivalents were given: live stock, sheep hog, goose, saddle, bridel, girth.

(Words)

Dated, June 1, 1900

On a separate sheet:

On another separate sheet:

At the top of the page (page 98):

On a letter head reading:

ADDRESS: "STEAMER OCCOQUAN."

Occoquan, Va. 189_

To - Str. OCCOQUAN, - Dr.

This is in a different handwritting from the rest of the manuscript. It is not in Radin's hand, but probably in Dorsey's.

Source

James Owen Dorsey, Winnebago Vocabularies Written by Philip Longtail [?], numbered according to ISIL 1880, Manuscript 4800 Dorsey Papers: Winnebago (3.3.2) 320 [old no. 1239] (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives, n.d.) complete: 77-192.