MANDAN etymology

[Robert L. Rankin]

> Alexander Henry the Younger (1809, _Journal_ (1992) 393) records
> "Saiwahtoukta" as the Assiniboine name for the Mandans. (Can anyone
> analyse it?) This name argues against an A. origin for the English
> name, at least in Henry's time.

> I should mention that I think this name reminds of some of the
> variants for Otoe, too.

Yes it does!  	watokta      or watukta
	Otoe:	wadohta-na   where -na is a Dakotan diminutive.

That's a good observation, especially in light of the fact that some
linguists and anthropologists feel the traditional analysis of wadohtana
as 'those who screw' is a folk etymology.

The verb root for 'f*ck' is *thu (from *thu or *rhu).  This comes out
regularly as Kansa	 /chu/	(where ch is as in English "church")
	     Osage	 /chu/	(where ch is [ts] aspirated)
In Otoe it should be 	 /du/, not /do/ (as we actually have in this
Otoe ethnonym).  It is therefore very likely that the ethnonym IS, in
fact, a folk etymology.  This leaves the way open for it to be cognate
with this Assiniboine term (which we would then NOT expect to have
anything to do with sex).  But what does it mean then?

Bob