Number & Counting Comparisons in Dhegiha

[rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu]

Hello Justin!

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the list!

I'm a student in Mark Awakuni-Swetland's class on Omaha.
We have also been trying to come up with a curriculum for
teaching the language, while desparately trying to figure it
out ourselves, so we can sympathize with your plight!  I hope
we can keep in touch with you and compare notes.

In Omaha-Ponca, the basic word for 'count' is dha'wa.  The
conjugation we have seems to be:

     dha'wa         s/he counts

     bdha'wa   I count

     hna'wa         you count  (the 'h' may be silent.)

     aNdha'wa  we count

This is a pretty regular set, and matches your imperative
form 'yawa'.  What surprises me is your first- and second-
person forms 'abla' and 'yabla'.

We do have a prefix wa- which generically substitutes
for the specific objects that would otherwise precede the
verb.  Thus, for our English sense of counting in general,
rather than counting fish, houses, people, stars, or
whatever, it would probably actually come out something
like:

     wadha'wa  s/he counts

     wabdha'wa I count

     etc.

I'm not sure we've found an abstract term 'number' yet,
though the Omaha dictionary compiled by Mark and
Elizabeth Stabler many years ago translates 'number'
as 'wadhawa'.

Other than ablaut issues, and a few irregular common
verbs, the command form and the third person singular
are normally the same.  The command form is the verb,
ending in -a if it ablauts, followed by the command
particle, -ga for men and -a for women.  I believe that
dha'wa is a regular, non-ablauting -a stem verb, so we
can just use it as it is.

     ShaN'ge dha'wa ga!
     Count the horses! (man speaking)

     Wadha'wa ga!
     Count!  (man speaking)

     ShaN'ge dha'wa a!
     Count the horses!  (19th century woman speaking)

     ShaN'ge dha'wa ya!
     Count the horses!  (20th century woman speaking)


For the orthography on this list, check out John Koontz'
excellent web site at

     http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz/default.htm

and click down to FAQ, and then "What is NetSiouan?"

Good luck!

Rory





"Justin McBride" <jmcbride at kayserv.net>@lists.colorado.edu on 11/13/2001
01:46:57 PM

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Subject:  Number & Counting Comparisons in Dhegiha



Hello, everyone!

We have a question or two for the Dhegihanists  out there.

We at the Kaw Nation are working on an  elementary level curriculum for
Kansa.  We would like to be able to include  in the vocabulary as many
common classroom words and phrases as we can  find.  Unfortunately, we have
found no word for 'number.'  Can  anyone provide me with Osage,
Omaha-Ponca, or Quapaw  cognates?  We would prefer not to neologize if a
related  word exists in one or  more of the others.

Furthermore, the Kansa word 'count' seems very  odd to me.  'I count' is
'abla,' and 'you count' is 'yabla.'  No  problem there.  The imperative
form is 'yawa.'  These are  the only attested forms of the verbs I have
seen.  I am fairly new to the  Dhegiha verb, and find myself at a loss at
figuring out what is happening  here.  What is the rest of the conjugation?
I am not even sure what  the 3rd Sing form would be.  I am utterly
stymied in just two  syllables!  For shame.

This is my first posting to the list, so please  bear with my ignorance.  I
am not even sure of the e-rthography.  I've  read through other posts that
seem to use very similar systems.  Is  there an archived post of any or all
orthography conventions within the email  confines of the list?


Thanks,
Justin McBride
jtmcbr at kayserv.net