Locative Postpositions

[Alan H. Hartley]

John Koontz wrote:

> I think Winnebago is a locative in
> Ojibwa, something like 'at the smelly water'.

It's not locative. Susan Golla and Ives Goddard (HNAI 15.706) suggest as
the etymon Potawatomi winpyeko (pl. -k) 'people of the dirty [i.e.,
muddy] water'. There are similar forms in various other Algonquian
languages, none of which looks locative.

> What's really potentially a problem here is the combination of an attested
> Mandan term with a Dakotan locative.

There are parallels, e.g.,

Ojibway (Algonquin) bostonenang '(in) the U.S.' < Boston (Mass.) +
Ojibway -nang (loc.) (Cuoq 1911)

Fox pe:ko:neki  'St. Louis (Mo.)' < French Pain Court 'St. Louis' + Fox
-eki (loc.) (HNAI 17.194)

Fox nwa:hke:neneki 'Rock Island' < English Rock Island + Fox -eki (loc.)
(ibid.)

Quebec(k)er & Montrealer as against Québecois & Montréalais (though here
the suffix isn't locative).

In fact, how is a Mandan placename with a Dakotan locative suffix
essentially different from an Ojibway placename with an English locative
preposition, e.g., "in Bemidji"? (A more serious problem is, as John
points out, that Siouan ethnonyms are not usually formed from
locatives.)

Alan