Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

Mcbride, Justin jtmcbri at OSTATEMAIL.OKSTATE.EDU
Thu Feb 20 22:31:25 UTC 2014


That's not a very satisfying solution, though, because no other e-final
verbs in Ks undergo ablaut with aba or akHa. At least none that I can think
of. Maybe there are in Os; I'm not sure. I would suspect that ol' Occam
would just say that akHa and aba in Os-Ks also have a quotative
function--in addition to their hundreds of other functions!


On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 4:15 PM, David Kaufman <dvkanth2010 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Justin,
>
> The mystery may perhaps be solved here.  I looked at Quintero's Osage
> Dictionary and she has aakxa 'they say, they were saying' as a "postverbal
> singular or plural marker of reported information deriving from person(s)
> who is/are present and not moving" < ee 'say' + akxa 'CONT' (p. 3), and she
> has aapa as 'they say, are saying' indicating that "information in the
> sentence is or was reported by another or others" <  ee 'say' + apa 'CONT'
> (p. 4).
>
> If this same is the case in Kaw, then it appears we may be dealing with
> two homographs as written, but would actually vary by length: aabá (ee +
> abá) 'said (moving)' and aakhá (ee + akhá) 'said (stationary)'.
>
> Dave
>
> David Kaufman
> Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
> Director, Kaw Nation Language Program
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Mcbride, Justin <
> jtmcbri at ostatemail.okstate.edu> wrote:
>
>> For what it's worth, I believe that what appears to be a second token of
>> aba in the example, aba-daN is actually a different type altogether. In
>> this case, I think it's a case of the verb e(e), 'to say', plus the -(a)be
>> completive aspect marker plus the conjunction -(a)daN, 'and'
>> [e(e)-(a)be-(a)daN > aba-daN]. If so, then, that one really is just 's/he
>> said and,' and the first one is actually the subject marker. But that's not
>> to say that there aren't other examples of the quotative use of subject
>> markers in Ks, even within the same text. Here's an example of quotative
>> akHa:
>>
>> iccikkitaNga akha oo aNs^i waali miNkHe akHa.
>> The Old Man said, "Oh, I'm getting fat."
>>
>> This case is much clearer to my way of thinking because there are two
>> verbal auxiliaries marking the same state (in this case, at rest)
>> back-to-back, one of which refers to 1st person (miNkHe, part of the
>> quotation), and one 3rd person (akHa, marks quotation). It's curious to
>> note that in the audio for this, the speaker laughs after miNkHe and then
>> almost catches her breath before saying akHa, which would indicate to me
>> that she felt it was essential for concluding the sentence. It's
>> interesting to me in that it seems that the entire quoted clause is acting
>> almost like a verb following the canonical pattern (subject) SUBJ (verb)
>> AUX, where SUBJ and AUX match shape in the continuative aspect, as in
>> s^idoz^iNga akHa ghaage akHa, 'the boy is crying.'
>>
>> -jtm
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Rory Larson <rlarson1 at unl.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>  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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