(O)maha

[David Costa]

Or Dakota /ho'taNke/, or Iowa-Otoe <hotu'nge>. Either the name was not
borowed from Winnebago directly, or it was borrowed from Winnebago before
that language had palatalized /t/ to /c/. We're talking at least 300 years
ago, so the latter idea seems entirely possible.

Dave


>> I suspect that Illinois speakers were among the first of the central
>> Algonquians to encounter many of these Siouan tribes, since in the oldest
>> records, Illinois often has Siouan names for these tribes that are later
>> replaced by more normal 'Algonquian' names. in addition to these 'Ioway'
>> names, another example is the name for the Hochunks; in Illinois, they're
>> variously known as <8ndakia> or <8ndankia>, which is clearly the Siouan name,
>> but by the 1820's on they're only known by the Miami-Illinois name
>> wiinipiikwa.

> It's interesting that the "Siouan" name seems to be based on something like
> (h)u(N)daNk-, i.e., maybe something like Omaha hu'ttaNge, instead of Winnebago
> hooc^aNk.