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<TITLE>Re: Etymologies of some state names</TITLE>
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I assume we're still talking about 'Kansa' here?<BR>
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If so, the name in question has initial /a/ in Meskwaki and Sauk as well ('0' = theta):<BR>
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Meskwaki /akaasa/<BR>
Sauk /akaa0a/<BR>
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However, compare:<BR>
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Shawnee /kaa0a/ 'Kansa, Kaw', /kaa0eemi/ 'pecan' & /kaa0eewi0iipi/ 'Ohio River'<BR>
Miami-Illinois /kaansa/~/kaanse/ 'Kansa, Kaw'<BR>
Illinois <acansipacane>, pl. Miami <akansapäkana> 'pecan'<BR>
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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/:<BR>
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'Ojibwe, Chippewa':<BR>
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Miami /acipwia/ <BR>
Sauk /ocipweewa/<BR>
Kickapoo /ocipwea/<BR>
Shawnee /hocipwe/<BR>
Ojibwe /ojibwe/<BR>
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The final animate /-a/ of Proto-Algonquian is preserved in Miami-Illinois and Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo, and sporadically so in Shawnee.<BR>
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David<BR>
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> "A minor footnote that occurs to me is that the -a, especially in the -(e)a<BR>
> version is probably the Algonquian animate proximate singular. Costa <BR>
> could confirm that and sources. (And I think we discussed the latter on<BR>
> the List.)" If that's the case, then I don't think Ojibwe/Ottawa could be a <BR>
> possible source of the loan. The Anishinaabe dialects have lost the final <BR>
> animate -a of Proto-Algonquian in most words. I'm not positive about whether <BR>
> Miami-Illinois or Fox retain them, but I have this vague recollection that at <BR>
> least Miami-Illinois did. <BR>
> <BR>
> The source has to be Illinois Algonquian because of the initial vowel. In <BR>
> Ojibwe and other languages such ethnonyms are marked with the prefix (short) <BR>
> -o. This only becomes a- in Illinois if I understood Goddard and Costa <BR>
> correctly. <BR>
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