etymology of MANDAN

[Alan H. Hartley]

Thanks to John for a marvelous essay on MANDAN and HIDATSA/wirahatsitati
!

> > Mandan mingintari 'water
>
> I suspect the g here shouldn't be there

You're right--my mistake: it should be miniN (where first -i- is raised
and N = IPA eng).

> I believe that Mandan has miNniN for 'water' normally, so the a has
> to be explained, if only by hand-waving.

Besides the forms like "Manetarres", Lewis & Clark also have
"Wanutaries" (III. 31) and "Winitaries" (III. 234), and Jimm GoodTracks
(Aug. 4) cites the Mandan word mani'ta:niro:te?esh 'he's a Manitaree'.
Does analysis of the latter permit extraction of mani'ta:n 'Mandan'? If
so, it would certainly make a good etymon for the English name.

Alan