¹ The informant for this material was Sam Blow Snake, with whom I worked in 1938–9 on the problem of accent in Winnebago. His English was not perfect, but he always managed to get the main point of the joke across. He was 68 years old, and an ardent member of the Peyote religion. This may have influenced the type of humor which he would be inclined to repeat, so that this material is presented as illustrating the possibilities in the language for certain types of humor, not as a representative sample of Winnebago jokes.

Dr. Paul Radin, an authority on Winnebago language and culture, read the first draft of this paper and made several comments which I am incorporating. He agreed with Blow Snake's translations, but made additions to the etymologies.

² The word in Winnebago can be defined by the criterion of ‘minimum free form’. Words are often run together in normal speech, but a slow, deliberate pronunciation separates them, and restores any sounds which have been omitted or changed.

³ Some of the symbols used in the phonetic transcription may require explanation. Consonants are roughly the same as those of English; j and c represent respectively the affricates in judge and church; š is pronounced as in she, ž as in azure; t is a voiceless fortis sound, r is a single tap of the tongue tip at the teeth ridge. A hook below the letter indicates nasalization.

⁴ The expression is in the plural, probably because it is the ears of corn that are referred to.

⁵ I am convinced, from Blow Snake's general behavior and the way he told me these jokes, that he saw no obscenity in any of them.

⁶ Dr. Radin believes that té·ži means ‘hard’, and gisák simply ‘to strike’, but since his data are not readily accessible, and there is no informant available at present, I give the translation as it was given me.

⁷ Repeating word for word a remark that has just been made is a device for sarcasm. Ordinarily there is no pun involved, and the purpose is ridicule but not, as far as I know, the amusement of bystanders.

⁸ Dr. Radin does not recognize the stem že·ną’ and thinks the play may be on a stem raš ‘finish, do with the mouth’, -ną would then be the suffix defined in example 1. I have found two stems that seem to be related to the instrumental prefix ra- ‘by the mouth’, namely rá·š ‘name’ (a noun) and rá·c ‘call by name’, but neither fits into this sentence. In addition, two phonetic facts contradict the suggestion that the stem in this expression is monosyllabic. The e in že must be accounted for, and the position of stress on the ną shows that it is not the suffix -ną, which characteristically does not carry stress. Dr. Radin considers pį·’ ‘be good’ a stem distinct from pį·’ ‘be able’, and suggests quite plausibly that there may be a pun on these stems here.

⁹ Dr. Radin does not know this word, but suggests that one might look for elision of a stem such as ca·wák with heré ‘be’. Something like this may be the case, but I hardly think so, in view of the fact that a final k elided with h ordinarily gives rise to g.