Etymologies of some state names

[David Costa]

I assume we're still talking about 'Kansa' here?

If so, the name in question has initial /a/ in Meskwaki and Sauk as well
('0' = theta):

Meskwaki /akaasa/
Sauk /akaa0a/

However, compare:

Shawnee /kaa0a/ 'Kansa, Kaw', /kaa0eemi/ 'pecan' & /kaa0eewi0iipi/ 'Ohio
River'
Miami-Illinois /kaansa/~/kaanse/ 'Kansa, Kaw'
Illinois <acansipacane>, pl. Miami <akansapäkana> 'pecan'

You're right tho, that Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo normally has /o/ for ethnonyms
where Miami-Illinois has /a/. In fact, Miami-Illinois does not have
word-initial short /o/:

'Ojibwe, Chippewa':

Miami /acipwia/ 
Sauk /ocipweewa/
Kickapoo /ocipwea/
Shawnee /hocipwe/
Ojibwe /ojibwe/


The final animate /-a/ of Proto-Algonquian is preserved in Miami-Illinois
and Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo, and sporadically so in Shawnee.

David



> "A minor footnote that occurs to me is that the -a, especially in the -(e)a
> version is probably the Algonquian animate proximate singular.  Costa
> could confirm that and sources.  (And I think we discussed the latter on
> the List.)"  If that's the case, then I don't think Ojibwe/Ottawa could be a
> possible source of the loan. The Anishinaabe dialects have lost the final
> animate -a of Proto-Algonquian in most words. I'm not positive about whether
> Miami-Illinois or Fox retain them, but I have this vague recollection that at
> least Miami-Illinois did.
> 
> The source has to be Illinois Algonquian because of the initial vowel.  In
> Ojibwe and other languages such ethnonyms are marked with the prefix (short)
> -o.  This only becomes a- in Illinois if I understood Goddard and Costa
> correctly.  

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