verb, noun
spiritual
Proto-Siouan-Catawba
Proto-Siouan
*wa•hką́
Proto-Mississipi-Valley
*wahką́
Proto-Dakota
*wakhą́
Lakota
wakhą́
‘spirit, sacred’
RTC
Sioux Valley
wakhą́
‘spirit, sacred’
PAS
Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere
*wakhą́
Chiwere
wakhą́
‘snake’
RR
,
wa•khą́da
‘god’
RR
Hoocąk
waką́
‘snake’
KM:3337
,
waką
‘holy’
KM:3338
,
wakąčą́k
‘witch’
KM:3348
,
wakącąk
,
wakąwą́x
,
wakąwąx
Proto-Dhegiha
*wahką́-
Omaha-Ponca
wakką́da
‘sacred, god’
RR
,
wakką́dagi
‘water monster’
Kanza/Kaw
wakką́da
‘holy, god’
RR
Osage
wahką́ta
‘holy, god’
RR
Quapaw
wakką́tta
‘spirit, god’
RR
Proto-Southeastern
Proto-Tutelo-Saponi
Tutelo
wageni; wagenī; wāgenī
, †wa•kąnį•
‘snake’
H:1878,
H:1883a,
H:1879
General comment
This term, meaning ‘sacred’ originally, acquired the meaning ‘snake’ in
several languages. The ‘snake’ extension of the term is found in Chiwere/Hoocąk with
possible further intrusion into DH shown by the derived ‘water monster’ form
in Omaha-Ponca (‘medicine man’ in other DH languages.) All of DH may once have been
included since (a) the simple form *wahką́ is lacking, and (b) ‘snake’
has been systematically replaced with *wesʔá ‘one that drips or hisses
(?)’ throughout DH. Possible extension of this ‘snake’ term to Virginia
Siouan may ultimately tell us something about the chronology of movements of
Tutelo and Saponi into the East. Tutelo apparently has a reflex of the present term while
Saponi has a reflex of ‘medicine’ like Ofo and Biloxi. Proto-Siouan *wąhką, ‘medicine’,
q.v., with its initial-syllable nasal vowel, is not derivationally related
to wahką́ in any obvious way. Nevertheless, the two terms, perhaps because
of their superficial similarity, have become intertwined semantically. Each
has undergone specialization to ‘snake’ in certain languages. Ives Goddard
(p.c.) reports that the sacred/snake mixture is found in adjacent Algonquian
languages also. Paul H. Voorhis (p.c.) suggests that this mixture may be just
euphemism. Snakes obviously have a large dose of mystic power, and one refers
to them by this, rather than by their proper names so as not to attract
them. Fox and Kickapoo have also merged ‘god’ and ‘snake’ in manetoowa,
and then created new expressions to distinguish them, Fox (manetoowa)
kiiyootaata ‘crawling manitou’ for ‘snake’, and Kickapoo (manetoowa)
kiisihiaata ‘creating manitou’ for ‘god’. Throughout central Algonquian
‘bugs’ are literally ‘little gods’, a similar euphemism? Anyway, wakhą
‘snake’ and wakhą ‘sacred’ are surely the same word in origin. Chiwere and
DH forms in *-ta are included to indicate the presence of the root
*wahką́ in those languages. They properly occur in ‘sacred (2b), god’ q.v.
The DH replacement forms are to be found at ‘hiss (1)’ etc., q.v.