OP /the/ vs. /dhaN/ (fwd)

[Rory M Larson]

I decided to wait till I had checked with the speakers again
before replying to this thread, and by now John has gone far
beyond me!

>> Rory said:
>> Thus, one leg would be /khe/, "elongate", but both legs would be /the/,
>> "the set". One eye would be /dhaN/, "globular", but both eyes would be
>> /the/.  A single hand, however, is still /the/, I suppose because all
>> the fingers composing it are regarded as a set.

John commented:
> I hadn't realized that legs were horizontal, which is sort of interesting
> in itself.

Elongate, not horizontal.  But I think John and Catherine have
already taken that position.

When I first asked the speakers about body parts a couple of months
ago, it seemed they consistently preferred /tHe/ for a set.  When I
brought the discussion around to eyes, I tried the idea of 'cross-eyed'.
Their first response was /iNs^ta' dhoN/ (are crossed).  I asked if you
could say /iNs^ta' tHe/ (are crossed), and they said it sounded better
that way.  This past week, after John's posting, I asked again.  This
time they flatly denied that you could say /iNs^ta' tHe/ for human
eyes; it must be /dhoN/ even in the plural.  So for 'cross-eyed' we
now have:

  iNs^ta' dhoN xa'wiN         iNs^ta' [dhoN] dhixa'wiN
  "s/he is cross-eyed"        "s/he crossed his/her eyes"
  (stative verb form)         (active verb form)

For animals, however, we can say /iNs^ta' tHe/, as in the following
example they gave me:

  iNs^ta' tHe unaa'goNba
  "their eyes light up"
    (referring to the eyes of coyotes at night in the headlights)

With legs, they agreed that it could be either /tHe/ or /kHe/
depending on how you were using it.  But in specific examples,
they seemed to use these to distinguish the set from the singular:

  z^ega' tHe              z^ega' kHe
  "both legs"             "one leg"

  z^ega' tHe oNni'e       z^ega' kHe oNni'e
  "my legs hurt"          "my leg hurts"

  z^ega' tHe dhihoN'      z^ega' kHe dhihoN'
  "elevate both legs"     "elevate one leg"


Tangentially to this inquiry, I learned some nuances to the
'leg' terms.  It seems that /z^ega'/ is the term for the
whole (mammalian) leg.  Previously, I had thought it just
referred to the thigh.  Fletcher and La Flesche have either
/z^i'be/ or /hi'/ for 'leg'.  Our speakers do not seem to
recognize /hi'/ as an independent term for 'leg' at all,
though it is still good for 'trunk', 'stalk' or 'stem'.
They consider /z^i'be/ to be 'leg', especially the front
from the knee down, or in other words the shin.  The shin
bone itself is /noN'xpahi/.  The metatarsal segment, the
part of the foot between the ankle and the toes, is /sihi'/.
On horses, this seems to hold for front and back legs:
the entire leg is /z^ega'/, while the metatarsal or
metacarpal segment down to the hoof is /sihi'/.  For
a /wagdhi's^ka/, the class of crawling creatures that
includes insects and lizards, the whole leg is /sihi'/.

Rory