Sky and clouds

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, Catherine Rudin wrote:
> >This said, at the moment sadly I can't recall how this works in
> >Omaha-Ponca!  I think 'sky' might be maNxpi, obviously an old CVC + pi
> >plural formation. ...
> >I don't remember 'cloud' at all.
>
> In Mark Swetland's UmoNhoN Iye of Elizabeth Stabler, 'sky' is maNghe and 'cloud'
> is maNxpi (slightly re-spelled, of course).  So clouds are plural sky?

Oops.  It appears that I got this backward.  I'm not sure it affects the
conclusions in general, but it does change the details.  'Clouds' are the
salient aspect of 'sky', and 'sky' : 'cloud' is historically something
like 'one (expanse of) sky stuff' : 'multiple (bits of) sky stuff'.  It
would be difficult for me to maintain that maNxpi is the current plural of
maNghe, of course, for a number of reasons:  the root form canon issues
mentioned before, the changes in the form and use of the plural morpheme
in OP (=> =i ~ =bi ~ =b acting as plural and proximate), and the present
normal use of positional articles (when present) to indicate plurality of
inanimate (definite) references.

I wonder what the proper articles are for 'clouds' and 'sky'?

JEK