Omaha Name with Unsual Word for 'Good'

[R. Rankin]

The /daN/ of daNhe' in Kansa and the /taN/ of Osage are
probably also related.  In Kaw daNhe' + POSITIONAL  is
the way you ask 'are you OK?' or 'how are you?'  There
is a long disquisition on the term in La Flesche's
Osage Dictionary too.  As John says, it's the
'goodness' that's all tied up with concepts of honor
and duty.  I suspect that dhaagdhiN is goodness in the
sense of 'pleasant', as in Kaw blaN yaaliN 'good
smelling'.  It's interesting how the two have gotten
generalized in the different subgroups.  And I can't
account for the initial H in Quapaw either.  (The QU
gemination is normal for post-accentual position in
this ''Sicilian-of-the-Siouan-Languages''.)
Bob

> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: [Spam:0008 SpamScore] Omaha Name with Unsual
> Word for 'Good'

I see KU's spam filter is still assigning John a score
of eight stars.

> One of the little noticeable differences between
> Dhegiha languages is the
> word for 'good'.  Omaha-Ponca has u'daN, Osage has
> dha'gdhiN or dha'liN
> (pronounceced dha'dliN - for a good time ask somebody
> who knows Osage to
> say 'very good'), Kaw has ya'le or ya'li (the same
> form as Osage, but with
> the Kaw sound changes), Quapaw has ho'ttaN.  In this
> case, OP and Qu
> pattern together, as do Os and Ks.
>
> Note that they all have some variant on ppiaz^i 'bad'
> from earlier ppi
> 'good' + az^i 'not' as well as occasional other
> fossilized cases of ppi
> 'good', from *hpi 'good', compare Dakotan phi'c^a
> 'good', IO phi' 'good',
> Wi piNiN' 'good'.
>
> Also, Osage has otaN' 'war honor' (i.e., 'coup'),
> which explains the OP
> and Qu forms, though not the initial h- of the latter
> (I think, but Quapaw
> is always full of surprises).
>
> So, I was interested to notice this Omaha name used
> in the KkaNze clan
> (Fletcher & LaFlesche, p.  171):  pahi'thagthiN
> (ppahiN' dha'gdhiN)
> glossed 'good hair'.  Of course, the name could be
> borrowed from another
> Dhegiha language, but perhaps it's just a leftover
> from earlier dha'gdhiN
> 'good', no longer attested.  Or perhaps dha'gdhiN is
> still around, but
> uncommon, and simply doesn't happen occur in the
> Dorsey texts or
> Swetland-Stabler dictionary.
>
> John E. Koontz
> http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz