Taheriyowini, the whirling bellower

taheriyowini

Source term: bullroarer

taheriyowini: 'whirling bellower' (ta- agent prefix + heri 'bellow, growl, howl' + yowini 'whirling'). huriyowini: tornado, 'whirling wind'. tipusayowini: dust devil, 'whirling dust'. wishiyowini: waterspout, 'whirling water'.

Tunica calls the bullroarer taheriyowini, the 'whirling bellower': ta-, which turns a verb into the one who does it, heri, to bellow, growl or howl, and yowini, whirling. The word belongs to a family of storms. Yowi means to blow round and round, as a cyclone does, and from it Tunica names the tornado, huriyowini, 'whirling wind', the dust devil, 'whirling dust', and the waterspout, 'whirling water'. At Marksville, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana is bringing the language back into speech.

taheriyowini … bullroarer lit. whirling bellower

Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, Yanatame Nisa Luhchi Yoroni (draft dictionary, 2018), p. 64.

Particulars

Object

A bullroarer, named in Tunica for its whirling and bellowing.

Function

Not recorded.