z to dh in Otoe

Lance Foster ioway at earthlink.net
Sat Feb 24 02:44:38 UTC 2001


Some examples of a change in Otoe, from z to dh in the 1820s or thereafter (note how many words were closer to Dak/Om) (by
comparison the terminal "a" in maza should be pronounced "e", as in Bison  cha (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):296 [should be
che (Om: te, Dak: pte])..terminal "e" in these old transcriptions should be "i":

[musket-]ball: ma-za-muh (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):300) [mazema = maze (iron/metal) + ma (arrow/missile)]

Copper  ma-za-ze (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):297) [mazezi = maze + zi (yellow)]

Iron  ma-za (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):297) [maze

Yellow  ze (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):297 [zi, now dhi]


Besides the shift to dh (eth) from z...

The shift is from s to th ..not only seen in the "Nebraska" post of today but also that "sewe" originally meant "black"
not "dark" and that "thewe" is an example of the shift to voiced from voiceless...

Black  sa-wa (O) (Say in Thwaites (17):297) [sewe or sawe .. see how much closer it was to Dak sapa and Om sabe?]

So rather than as Jimm suggests that sewe (dark) was derived from thewe.. the historic evidence shows that it was the
other way around ..sewe (1820s) -> thewe (1900 ca.) .. man that is some awful fast linguistic change

You linguists can help me understand this shift to voiced from voiceless in Chiwere with the examples here of z -> dh and
s -> th ..
I know this is consistent in its mechanism ..I just can't remember the terminology

Lance

--
Lance Michael Foster
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