Omaha-Ponca Modal of Obligation (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

After checking with him, I'm submitting this note of Rory Larson's.  I
particularly wanted to see it on the list since since it identifies two
egregious errors in my submission on the subject.  The words following
are Rory's except for the quoted (indented) part and otherwise marked
short responses from me.  JEK

======

Rory Larson comments:

Thanks for posting, and for your excellent analyses.  I think the following
two examples are questionable, however.

> JOD 1890:28.19   [correction 28.18!  JEK]
>
> e=ac^HaN=xc^i c^?e=wadha=s^e
> how on earth  did (must) you (have) kill(ed) him
>
> JOD 90:87.16-17
>
> maN'=khe   xta'=as^e
> arrows the I (have to) love

These are normally causative verbs: t?e'dhe (t?e'wadhadhe = You killed
them) and xta'dhe (xta'adhe = I love it).  Given that Dorsey used the cent
sign for ledh (dh < Pr.S r) and 'c' for esh (s^), and that confusion
between these two is probably the most common typographical error
occurring in the Dorsey corpus, I think these two cases are almost
certainly typos.

=========

John Koontz responds:

I quite agree!  I am thoroughly embarassed not to have caught the errors
myself.  I've checked, and theses are typos in the original publication,
and not in the Siouan Archives texts (which sometimes happens, though
surprisingly little, given the nature of the material).

=========

I had previously supposed that =(a)s^e occurs only after the potential
particle tte, as tta's^e or tta'bas^e.  But two of your examples have it
in the form of =bas^e alone:

> 90:144.14
>
> hni?a=b=as^e
> you must (will necessarily) fail
>
>
> 90:171.9
>
> waxpa'dhiN=b=as^e
> they must be poor
>
> (This seems to stray from obligation to deduction.)

Do you happen to know, in the first of these two examples, whether the
"you" is singular or plural?

=====

JK response:  It's plural, which, on reflection, is the only possibility
that makes sense for second peson plus =b(i).

=====

Another very interesting form:

> 90:167.4
>
> abdhiN=   tta=miNkha=s^e
> I have it will AUX    must
> 'I have to have it'

which I suppose means 'I will have to have it'.

=====

JEK:  I guess it must.  You do get (s^)niNke=s^e and (s^)naNkha=s^e in the
second persons of dhiNkhe/dhaNkha, but this =s^e is with the first person
miNkhe and does seem to be a first person.