Cele ee eD Eick, sll Ve 
UNWRITTEN DAKOTA LAWS. 
THE FAMILY. 
In the commencement and growth of the Dakota people and language 
we may properly assume that the words ‘“a-te,” father, and “i-na” and 
“huy,” mother (“nihuy,” thy mother, “huyku,” his mother), were among the 
very first. They are short, and not capable of further analysis. ‘‘Wiéa,” 
male, and “win” or “winna” and “winyay,” female, would be the first 
words to designate the man and woman. From these would grow naturally 
the present names, wi-¢a-sta,' or the Yankton and Teton form, ‘ wi-Ga-sa” 
(male-red), man, and winohinéa’ (female-very), woman. There would be 
father-in-law before grandfather ; and hence we find the former designated 
by “tun-kay,”* the shorter one, and the latter by ‘“twy-kay-si-na.”  “Tun- 
kay” is also the name of the stone god, which may indicate some kind of 
worship of ancestors. The shortest word also is found in mother-in-lav, 
“kun” (‘‘nikuy,” thy mother-in-law, “kuyku,” his mother-in-law). A woman 
speaking of or to her mother-in-law and grandmother calls them both 
“uyéi,” making the latter sometimes diminutive “uyéina.” 
Some words for child should be at least as old, if not older than, father 
and mother. Accordingly we find the monosyllables ‘‘éis,” son, and 
“Guys,” daughter, used by the parents when speaking to the children, while 
““Ginéa” is the common form. 
In the line of “win” being the oldest form word for woman, we have 
the Dakota man calling his wife ““mitawin,” my woman. The word as wite 
is not used without the affixed and suffixed pronominal particles (mi-ta-wiy, 
nitawiy, tawicéu), which would indicate property in the woman. On the 
‘While wiéa Sa may mean ‘‘ male red,” how shall we render wiéa sta? Wiéa—nika (Vegiha), ¢ 
male of the human species; and wiéa Sa or wiéa sta =nikaci"ga (('egiha). a person; an Indian.—J. 0 D. 
-Shortened to winohéa, 
*Tunkansidan, in Santee; tunkaysina, in Yankton; tuykansila, in Teton. 
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