Locative Postpositions

[Alan H. Hartley]

David Rood wrote:

> the verb e'tu means 'to be in/at a particular place'

> The -l/-n marker is, in my opinion, the reduced form of e'tu

Regina Pustet wrote:

> A very common process here is that
> stem-final -tu or -ta is converted to -l/-n. From that perspective, the
> assumption that the postposition e'l originates in the verb e'tu makes a
> lot of sense. Since postpositions may grammaticalize into affixes, -l/-n
> might be the reduced version of e'l.

To revert to the etymology of MANDAN, is it possible then that Dakotan
mãtan 'Mandan' *might* represent Mandan mãta 'Missouri River' + -e'tu
(reduced to -n/-l) meaning something like 'they (who) are at the
Missouri'? Might the -n/-l also represent -ta, yielding something like
'at the Missouri'? Perhaps--recalling the folk explanation of MINITARI
recounted by Jimm--Dakotans asked the Mandans who they were, and the
latter responded that they were those that lived on the Missouri.

I'm ignorant of Siouan morphology, and I'm sure it looks as though I'm
just fishing here, but that's why I'm filtering my musings through the
Siouan list. I appreciate any feedback, and I do enjoy reading the
postings as they wander from one topic to another.

Thanks,
Alan