Help translate Lakota words

[Dietmar]

I got a request per e-mail if we can help translate these Lakota words:

Atkukupi and Wicayuoniihanpi

[Deleted]

George Sword uses the first one a + tku + ku meaning "my father" and it is found in stanza D272 in the thesis of Delphine Red Shirt. Sword does not have the second one, but, he does have yu + o + ni + han + pi found in stanza A19 meaning "they honor someone," so with wica as the prefix it probably means "the people they honor someone"

[Deleted]

Sometimes if is difficult for me to decipher some word in the George Sword stories but I am using a process of elimination to solve the puzzle. But then, sometimes Delphine Red Shirt leaves a stanza only partially complete or the translation is totally missing. And then the only recourse is to look at all the syllables in the word and list all the possible meanings for the syllables and come up with something that fits the sense of the narrative. But even known words can be perplexing. The word for song is "olowan" but what does that mean? When I look at the syllables the parsing of them that makes the most sense to me is this: o (about it) lo (they seek it) wan (a vision it is). George Sword presents several songs in his narratives and it seems clear now that the various rituals and ceremonies -- especially wi (the Sun) wanyag (they stare at it) waci (while they dance) -- are designed to reveal visions. And sometimes, as with the heyoka (he who dreams of wakinyan), a person has no choice, but is, rather, the choice of wakinyan, and the chosen person must accept the vow and make his commitment. Oh, and Lakota, what does that mean? I parse it as this: la (affectionate regard) ko (inclusive friendship) ta (toward all of creation). By the way, a peace treaty, as I parse it, is this: o (about it) la (affectionate regard) ko (inclusive friendship) ta (toward the pursuit of wisdom). It seems to be a very relational language and some of the syllable concatenations are also very symbolic and any word in my language is only very approximate. One dictionary definition of okaga is "to be floating with the current" but it can be parsed as o (into it) ka (that yonder) ga (spread out), which does seem to present the image of someone floating in a stream. I jump into that yonder stream there and with my limbs spread out I float downstream? That does it for me.

[Deleted]

Has anyone confirmed my translations? Does anyone care?

[Dietmar]

Thank you very much.