{"id":"KARI1994-001","label":"Notniboddhi, the spinning one","people_or_site":"Lower Tanana Dene (Minto-Nenana and Chena)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Middle Tanana Valley: Minto Flats, Nenana and Chena rivers, interior Alaska","macroregion":"North America / Subarctic","local_name":"notniboddhi","source_term":"notniboddhi (n.) bullroarer","source_language":"Lower Tanana","object_description":"A bullroarer, called notniboddhi; its form is not recorded.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"kari1994_lower_tanana_dictionary","source_type":"language_dictionary","source_url":"https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/TNMN981K1994b/kari-1994-lower_tanana_dictionaryf.2.pdf","page_or_plate":"Kari 1994 p. 40 (stem botth /roll/, entry notniboddhi); p. 375 (index, BULLROARER).","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"modern Minto village (UAF Alaska Energy Gateway 65.152, -149.348) as a representative Lower Tanana community anchor; the dictionary covers Minto-Nenana and Chena speech; a language-level anchor, not a collection point","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Lower Tanana named the bullroarer notniboddhi, from botth, the root that means to roll, revolve and spin. The same root names the fishwheel turning in the river current, the sternwheeler riverboat and the car. Lower Tanana is the Dene language of the middle Tanana Valley in interior Alaska, spoken at Minto, Nenana and on the Chena. Down on the Copper River the Ahtna heard the instrument instead: to them it was 'that which speaks' and 'that which blows'.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"notniboddhi: bullroarer, from the stem botth 'roll, revolve, spin' (Kari 1994, pp. 40, 375)","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, Lower Tanana Athabaskan Dictionary, First Preliminary Draft (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1994), pp. 40, 375","url":"https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/TNMN981K1994b/kari-1994-lower_tanana_dictionaryf.2.pdf"}],"source_citations":"James Kari, Lower Tanana Athabaskan Dictionary, First Preliminary Draft (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1994), pp. 40, 375","source_display":"James Kari, Lower Tanana Athabaskan Dictionary, First Preliminary Draft (Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 1994), pp. 40, 375","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer, called notniboddhi; its form is not recorded.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"lower tanana","display_name":"Notniboddhi, the spinning one","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BIRKET1953-001_chugach-p104-crop.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BIRKET1953-001_chugach-p104-crop_thumb.jpg","alt":"Close crop of page 104 in Birket-Smith's account of Chugach social life, with a paragraph describing a buzz and spring-season bullroarers.","credit":"Kaj Birket-Smith, The Chugach Eskimo (Copenhagen, 1953), p. 104, HRAF microfiche","license":"© Nationalmuseet; page crop of cited text under the cited-figure rule — rights not cleared","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41160225_0004","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Birket-Smith's calendar of sun-games: the buzz and the spring bull roarers","pool_id":"auto-BIRKET1953-001_chugach-p104-crop","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"kari1994-001-lower-tanana-dene-minto-nenana-and-chena"}