Home › Glossary › Letter T

Tsoai

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Kiowa name for Devils Tower in Wyoming, a sacred geological formation central to origin stories and spiritual poetry.

Detailed Definition
Tsoai is the Kiowa name for Devils Tower, a butte in Wyoming central to their origin story of seven sisters becoming the Pleiades. It embodies sacred geography and celestial connection. In poetry, Tsoai symbolizes ancestral journey, the mapping of myth onto land, and the endurance of Kiowa cosmology, often used to explore themes of place, memory, and the spiritual significance of rock formations.
Example
Example in poetry:
Tsoai, the Kiowa name for Devils Tower, rises in poetry as the bear-scarred monument to creation; A verse describes Tsoai holding the first Kiowa stories in its striated stone; Poets use Tsoai to honor place-based identity: “We are named for what protects us”; In historical poetry, its shadow shelters resistance; Its columns become fingers in verse—reaching for sky and memory.
Additional Notes
Tsoai (Bear Lodge, or Devils Tower) is a sacred site in Kiowa and Lakota traditions; for the Kiowa, it is where seven sisters became the Pleiades—poets referencing Tsoai must honor its ongoing ceremonial use and avoid recreational or trivial descriptions; it is a place of origin, not a geological oddity.
Also Known As
Devils Tower Bear’s Lodge
Skip to main content