Dhegiha Plurals and Proximates

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 13 Jun 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> I've been looking over Carolyn Quintero's "First Course in Osage" book
> in Mark's office.  It looks like there are number of cases where we
> get some sort of Cai sequence, including the end sequence of the
> we-plural form.

I don't have this material, but I suspect that the ai in this case is a
reduced a(dh)e, presumably the declarative on a dual.

> As far as I can tell, pi generally functions as a pluralizer,
> except in third-person declarative forms (pe/pa), where it is
> used for either singular or plural.  Is this understanding
> correct?

I believe so.  Allowing for -pi ~ -pe ~ -pa as allomorphs instead of OP -i
~ -bi ~ -b- it's essentially the same situation as OP.

> There also seems to be a post-verbal particle =dhe ~ =e which is
> supposed to function as a sort of emphatic.  Does this equate to
> anything in any language outside of Osage?

It's the feminine declarative, comparable to OP -he (vs. masculine -ha(u))
in the Dorsey texts. I'm not sure if it's necessarily cognate.  It seems
to be a better match for OP -dhe (vs. -dha(u)), which is more emphatic
than the declarative, and also occurs in reporting or announcing the words
of others (-edhe,- adha).  I recall that Clifford Wolfe used to use -ano
(-adhau) in his PowWow announcing.

> Finally, I'm going to ask again for comment from the comparativists
> (John?  Bob?) on the alternate Winnebago 3rd-person pluralizer
> =ire.  Is it known to be cognate to anything outside of Winnebago?

Frommemory:

Winnebago -irE ~ -wi
IO        -hnE ~ -wi
Mandan    -kErE (< -krE)
Tutelo    -hlE

It has always looked to me like the PS form is something like *=kre.  I
don't understand Winnebago i.  It's a bit like Teton having iNktE in the
future (with some support in Winnebago, as I recall), while the others all
have *kte (with the e-grade).  I think *=kre conditions the a-grade in
ablaut, like *=pi, so, as Bob has been pointing out, it's probably best to
speak in terms of *akre and *api.

In an aside, OP e=iN=the 'perhaps' may have a cognate of the Teton iN of
the future, though this iN never occurs with the future =tte.