Obviative/Proximate and the Omaha verb system

[Rankin, Robert L]

I wrote a longish reply to Connie's post but it went away into cyberspace
before I could send it. I'll try to find it....

> Here are some -AN verbs with nasal -a that cannot be explained with
> "nasalization spread":

And, of course, nasalization spread could fairly be argued to have had a
crucial part in producing AN.

> -hAN, to stand (and numerous compounds)

>This one may be related to the OP thaN 'the (standing)' animate

Yes, *rVhaN > Dhegiha thaN, Dakotan haN, Winnebago jaN, etc. regularly. And
there is the verb *haN-ke, presumably the source of the haN part of *rV-haN.

>...one could imagine *thaN=he contracting to *the.

Right now, I'd stick with two separate etymologies for the animate/inanimate
pair.

> yukxAN,  to exist (for)

> Cf. Biloxi and Tutelo /yuke'/ 'auxiliary'. But there are problems with the
y/y equation.

>There's a thaN 'have; be plentiful at' stem in OP.

bob