{"id":"KARI1990-001","label":"That which speaks, that which blows","people_or_site":"Ahtna (Copper River Athabaskans)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Alaska, Copper River basin","macroregion":"North America / Subarctic","local_name":"deniiyi; hwdelyoli; ladinen' (Mentasta)","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"Ahtna; English","object_description":"A bullroarer, named in Ahtna for its voice, its breath and its cord.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"kari1990_ahtna_dictionary","source_type":"language_dictionary","source_url":"https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/AT973K1990/AhtnaDictionary-smaller.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 272, 304, 441, 491","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Copper Center as a representative point in the Copper River Ahtna language area; the dictionary gives no place for the instrument.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In Ahtna, the language of Alaska's Copper River country, the bullroarer has two names, and each hears it differently. Deniiyi, 'that which speaks', comes from the verb for saying and telling. Hwdelyoli, 'that which blows', comes from the verb for blowing and breathing, the same root that says a gentle breeze is blowing. Upriver at Mentasta it had a third name, ladinen', which also means hemp rope: a word that came from Russian kanatnyy, 'rope', by way of the Dena'ina of Cook Inlet, and named the instrument for the cord that swings it.","pull_quote":"deniiyi … bull-roarer, lit. 'that which speaks'","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"James Kari, Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary (1990), p. 304.","term_gloss":"deniiyi: 'that which speaks', from nii' 'say'. hwdelyoli: 'that which blows', from yotl' 'blow, breathe'. ladinen': 'hemp rope; bull-roarer' (Mentasta), from Russian kanatnyy 'rope' via Upper Inlet Dena'ina.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"James Kari (comp. and ed.), Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1990), pp. 272, 304, 441","url":"https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/AT973K1990/AhtnaDictionary-smaller.pdf"}],"source_citations":"James Kari (comp. and ed.), Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1990), pp. 272, 304, 441","source_display":"James Kari (comp. and ed.), Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1990), pp. 272, 304, 441","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer, named in Ahtna for its voice, its breath and its cord.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ahtna","display_name":"That which speaks, that which blows","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-130_ypm_ant_231820_dividing_point.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-130_ypm_ant_231820_dividing_point_thumb.jpg","credit":"Yale Peabody Museum, YPM ANT 231820","license":"CC0","source_page":"https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-231820","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"An antler roarer from Dividing Point on the Yukon.","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-130_ypm_ant_231820_dividing_point"},"slug":"kari1990-001-ahtna-copper-river-athabaskans"}