etymology of MANDAN

[Robert L. Rankin]

> Nor does narrowing it down to a particular language guarantee a
> correct interpretation.
>
> Granted, but it's certainly a necessary beginning.

I agree.

> Back to your assertion that "unless it [an ethnonym] is transparent in
> the native language of that tribe itself (and sometimes even then),
> any analysis is suspect." It seems to me that the etymology of an
> ethnonym should not be less suspect simply because the etymon adduced
> is native. (Folk etymology operates on native words as it does on
> foreign ones.)

That's true too.  It took me a lot of digging around in the early Spanish
ethnonyms in the S.E. to realize just how slippery these guys are.  John
gave us the Omaha-Ponca "Mandan" terms, and there are already two or more
of them.  Somebody's been messin' wif 'em.  Wish I could figure it out.
John and I have just been carrying on private correspondence on the name
"Kansa".  It's just as bad, but for other reasons....

Bob