Talk:A'kêstséašé'šenovôtse

How could Chayenne people have a word for cobra if cobras don't live in North America? Maybe this word means some differen kind of snake? Hugo.arg 21:13, 13 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

strange reasoning... Tłʼiish bikʼós niteelígíí... Seb az86556 00:30, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cheyenne, like any other American Indian language, can form a name for cobras, llamas, monkeys, and anything else that they are all quite familiar with (after all, they do have books and zoos just like everybody else). A'kêstséašé'šenovôtse literally means "balled-up head snake" or "bundle-head snake" and it refers specifically to the cobra. Cheyenne, like most of these languages, is polysynthetic and a single word contains a complex description. Stephen G. Brown 06:03, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks for explaining. I'm more familiar with South American indian laguages so they mostly use Spanish words for the things that aren't natural in America, like cow - waka (from spanish vaca), goat - kawra, etc. Hugo.arg 09:53, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The languages of North America have a very long tradition of translating new concepts into native terms, and they generally do not like to adopt foreign words. A few adoptions do occur (like Navajo béeso = money), but not many. For this reason, many Indian languages here share certain grammatical and syntactical features, but do not share vocabulary. Stephen G. Brown 11:43, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]