(O)maha

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004, Alan Hartley wrote:
> Can maha stand alone (without the [locative?] o-) in Dhegiha?

It's not known to occur that way, and, oddly enough, neither is umaN'haN ~
omaN'haN.

What I've seen is:

Dakotan

O'ma(N)ha 'Omaha'

Omaha-Ponca

UmaN'haN (final syllable usually denasalized to schwa) 'Omaha'
kki'maNhaN-ugaxdhe 'facing against the wind (e.g., of elk)' (looks like
   a reflexive?)
Ni'maNhaN 'a personal name' (may be 'Muddy Water(s)' with a homophonous
   root maNha(N) 'muddy')  (Probably not a reference to McKinley
   Morganfield, however.)
s^u'demaNhaN=xti 'a very thick fog' (s^u'de 'smoke, most', xti 'very',
   maybe also 'maNha(N) 'muddy', perhaps 'mudbank mist'?)

Note that while the name Omaha is said to mean 'against the wind or
current', hence 'upstream', the OP form Dorsey gives for 'upstream, north'
in normal use is itta'gha=tta.  It's possible that there are contexts in
which umaN'haN occurs as 'upstream' or something like that, but it's also
possible that the meaning is deduced from kki'maNhaN, which is widely
attested, plus the usual sense of u-forms.

The u- locative is the OP version of PSi o-, cf. o- in that capacity in
most other Mississippi Valley langauges, and is due to the *o > u vowel
shift in Omaha-Ponca.

Ks

kki'maNhaN 'against the wind or current'

Os

hki'maNhaN 'against the wind or current'

Quapaw:

kki'maNhaN 'against the wind or current'
I'maNhaN 'name of a Quapaw village which later merged with the Caddo'
   (with the locative i- 'with; in the direction of' instead of o- 'in,
   at')  (presumably etymologically 'upstream(ward)')

Ioway-Otoe

iromaNhaN 'upstream' (i + o + maNhaN)
umaNhaN 'upstream' (perhaps only as explanation of Omaha ethnonym?)

Winnebago:

maNaNhaN' 'go against the medium'
hiromaNhaN=iNj^a 'at the upper part (of the river)' (i + o + maNhaN)

Note that IO and Wi do attest *omaN(aN)haN, albeit in the further derived
*iro'maNhaN.  The sequence *iro- (Da iyo-, OP udhu-, Ks oyo-, Os odho-, IO
iro-, Wi hiro-) is the PSi (or just Proto-MVS?) compound of the *i and *o
locatives.  I'm not sure if the IO form umaN'haN is supposed to exist
independently (I think *o- > *u- is normal in initial position), or merely
to explain Omaha, but, in principle, it is an attestation of
*omaN(aN)'haN.  Interestingly, it's the only one outside of the ethnonym.

Also note that Wi is the only language where the bare form maNaNhaN' is
attested.

I think this collection of forms is more or less complete for the usual
lexical sources, but is probably far from complete in terms of actual
forms, since the dictionaries are at best extensive samples.

> The earliest record I know of is Marquette's Maha in 1673, and I don't
> recall any examples of 'aux Mahas' (though bear in mind that my recall
> sometimes falls short!)

Yes, that's the attestation problem I was afraid of - not knowing the
sources.  It may be insurmountable.  Maha(s) without 'aux Mahas' looks
more like truncation.