Winnebago Vowel Length (Re: Helmbrecht Paper: Terminology 'modal prefix')

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, David Costa wrote:

> > "I suppose working with Winnebago speakers, it must be clear that
> > their perception is that the h is organic."
>
> What exactly do you mean by 'organic' here, John?

An underlying part of the stem, that has to be deleted in contexts where
it doesn't appear, e.g., in waa- < wa-ha-, as opposed to an epenthetic
consonant, added in some relatively superficial way.  A lot of Siouan
languages add an automatic ? before initial vowels, for example, while
Winnebago seems (almost) to add an automatic h.  (Except for the various
exceptions mentioned, and perhas others I haven't noticed.)

JEK