(This post is about playing with language: if you’re looking for Cree cultural teachings of the Northern Lights, please click here!)
Photos shared across the entire internet are making it tough not to envy the many places privileged with the full spectacle created by recent powerful geo-magnetic storms. I’m grateful to Eric Moll of Fox Lake, Alberta, for permission to share his gorgeous photo above.
My computer and I are currently sitting in Nunavut where the views ought to be superlative, but we’ve been mostly shut out by the constant rain and overcast nights.
What caught my eye today was this great infographic from the US National Weather Service, Northern Indiana, that Kevin Lewis shared, along with the comment:
kâ-mihkosimot is on top!!
We can read this phrase (in English) as “he/she is dancing red”. But if somebody can dance red, then they should be able to dance other colours, too.
The word begins with kâ– (the prefix that marks verbs in conjunct form). The next part is mihko– (the prefix form of red), and finally, the word ends with –simot – just like ê-pwâtisimot, a form of pwâtisimow “to dance powwow” or maybe “Sioux dancer”.
So Kevin’s example gives us all tools to build the words for dancing in other colours, too!
kâ-mihkosimot “he/she is dancing red” or even “red dancer”
kâ-askihtakosimot “he/she is dancing green, green dancer”
kâ-nipâmâyâtisisimot “he/she is dancing purple, purple dancer”
kâ-sîpihkosimot “he/she is dancing blue, blue dancer”
And if that’s not making a word nerd’s delight out of colours and the Northern Lights, I don’t know what is!
