Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

[Rory Larson]

Hi Dave,

In Omaha and Ponca, the corresponding article is amá, where you have abá.  As with Kaw, it tends to imply 'moving/absent'.  But we also have another particle, apparently pronounced the same way, coming at the end of the sentence, that implies that the foregoing is hearsay rather than solid fact.  It can stand by itself, or it can be coupled with the 'allegedly' particle bi to make the common ending for 3rd person hearsay action, biama.

I notice the accent changes to the first syllable in the second case of your example.  I wonder if that could be underlyingly a-aba in that case?  The first would be the ablauted version of 'he said it', followed by either the Old Man's article abá or a 'hearsay' particle as in OP.  One problem with that would be that the 'hearsay' amá in OP shouldn't cause a preceding verb to ablaut.

My $0.02.

Best,
Rory


From: Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] On Behalf Of David Kaufman
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 1:30 PM
To: SIOUAN at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU
Subject: Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

Hi all,

I have a question re: a curious structure in Kaw, and whether anything like it occurs in other Dhegihan or even non-Dhegihan Siouan languages.  The structure involves the articles akhá and abá, used for subjects in Kaw and usually translated 'the', the first being roughly for 'standing/sitting' and the other for 'moving/absent'.  However, in Kaw, these subject articles also somehow seem to have become used as quotatives, or 's/he said.'  Here is an example sentence with gloss:

Icíkitanga  abá, "Anyáxtaga-édan," ába-dan,  nanstábe.
Old.Man   said   bite.me-then          said-then   kicked.him
The Old Man said, "Then bite me," and he kicked him.

So abá, which is normally used for 'moving' subjects and is usually translated 'the', is now being used for 's/he said.'

Any thoughts on this, esp. from other Dhegihan perspectives, or other Siouan languages that might have some similar usage?

Thanks!


David Kaufman
Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
Director, Kaw Nation Language Program
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