More on Noun Classes or Gender in Omaha-Ponca

[Rory M Larson]

John wrote:
> "KkaN=ha',       du'=akha u'z^iha a'na[N]xdh ihe'=dha=ga," a'=bi=ama.
>  grandmother VOC this     bag     hidden     put it away   he said

  [...]

> I'm a little puzzled here by the du'=akha.  It seems most naturally to
> apply to the bad itself, but I would expect du'=khe in that case.
> Du'=akha seems to have an animate reference.  I see several
possibilities:
>
> 1) Dorsey heard and reported du'=khe as du'=akha.  Bear in mind that
=akha
> is [akh] or [akhA] (A = voiceless a) and =khe is [kh] or [khE].
>
> 2) Du'=akha refers to the grandmother, perhaps along the lines of 'You,
> hide this away!'
>
> 3) Maybe du' forces akha?  Or at least =akhe as a variant of =khe?

I'd suggest a fourth possibility.  I don't think that
akha' necessarily has animate reference.  We've previously
observed the passage in which Is^ti'dhiNkhe tricks Coyote
into fishing with his tail through a hole in the ice, in
which the ice akha' froze.  Akha' seems to be used to focus
the listener's attention on an entity.  Usually that entity
is animate, and is usually the active agent of the verb,
but we seem to have exceptions both to animacy and to
agentivity.  I'm not sure if we ever have exceptions to
focus or not.  In this example though, I think the point
of akha in the phrase "du'=akha u'z^iha" is transparently
to focus the grandmother's attention on "this here bag".

I'm pretty sure I have run akha' used for inanimate things
like pens by the speakers, and that they have found it
acceptable.  I'll try to check again sometime to make sure.

Rory