Locative Postpositions (was Re: Mandan (again))

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 24 Oct 1999, Alan H. Hartley wrote:
> Are you saying that specifically in Lakota -l is a reduction of -tu or
> -c^a ?

Yes.  I'm not sure if all (or any) Dakotanists agree with me.  In Dakotan
it works pretty well (not always) simply to treat all these (-tu, -l, -ka
~ c^a) as separate phenomena.

> Is the same true of -n in other Dakotan languages?

Given the corespondences, I believe so in Stoney and Assiniboine.  I'm not
sure it's always -n in Santee-Sisseton and Yankton-Yanktonais.  I'd expect
-d after an oral vowel:  ed ~ etu, ed ~ ec^a.

> Is -ka/-c^a also a locative?

No.  It patterns as a postposition, and has a sense of approximately 'such
a, like'.  I don't recall the gloss in Buechel off the top of my head.
This is what happens when a student of Dhegiha answers a question on
Dakotan ...  Well, there are plenty of Dakotan experts on the list!

> Is there (I ask facetiously, if hopefully)  a comparative tabulation of
> Siouan locatives?

Some of the tables of postpositions and correlatives in Boas & Deloria
1941 might come close to what you're looking for.  In general, B&D are
*the* source when you need a comprehensive catalog of some morphological
class or pattern.

I'd also say that for a nice syntactic overview you might consult
the recent survey of such things by Bruce Ingham in IJAL.

JEK