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<p><tt>> I can't add much to what's already been said, except that I think the letter X really has to be read as [ks]. Siouan *ks clusters all reduce to [s] or [ss] in Dhegiha languages. And it's highly unlikely that Julius Meyer would have known to use X for a fricative sound. If he knew Yiddish, Polish or Czech, he might have used CH, but not X.<br>
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<tt>Yeah, that's probably true, and would favor Justin's suggestion of [something]-ska, rather than [something]-akHa', supposing it is from Ponca. There's also the o in Box, which might suggest [oN] rather than [a]. Rolling Box ka around in my head using those readings sounds more like ppoN'kka-ska than anything else. There's a fairly common female name PoN'ka-soN, but I'm not seeing a PoN'ka-ska anywhere in the Fletcher & La Flesche name lists.</tt><br>
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<tt>The Nebraska State Historical Society website on Julius Meyer says that he is reputed to have spoken six *Indian* languages, not just six languages. He was born in Prussia in 1839, came to Omaha in 1867, developed acquainances with Plains Indians, and served as an interpreter for General George Crook. On other sites, there are a couple of pictures of his tobacco store from 1878, one with an awning printed in giant letters: Julius Meyer: Indian Interpreter. (A couple of Jewish-partisan blog sites from a few years ago claim that he came to Omaha in 1864 at the age of 13 or 14.) There are photos of him in Indian garb with some mainly Sioux delegations from the 1870s before that. He was the local specialist in Chinese and Japanese matters, as well as Indians. He seems to have started the Omaha Chess Club in 1879, and there is a picture of three Indians from 1883 that he apparently took. Oddly, I can't seem to find a date for his death.</tt><br>
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<tt>Although I think Bob is probably right about x being read as [ks], I would like to ask if anyone knows where the x convention for the velar fricative originated. Dorsey used it for the voiced or muted phoneme, and Fletcher and La Flesche collapsed both into x. Is this coming from an education in Greek? What about Russian? Doesn't it use an X for the velar fricative? (Sorry, I'm rusty on Cyrillic!) And what is known about Dorsey's introductory education in OP? Did he have any contact with Meyer?</tt><br>
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<tt>Rory</tt><br>
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