Non-Sentential Utterances in OP

[Koontz John E]

There are those of you who are contacting me to say that you aren't
hearing from the list, apparently preferring to overlook the unfortunate
Pa-Pa-Oo-Mau-Mau incident.  To reassure you that the list exists, and
with apologies to those who've already seen this, here is something more
serious.  This is an outtake from some work on a paper on Siouan word
status and structure that Bob Rankin has drafted me (and others) to help
on.

If you get this, will you please respond to koontz at boulder.nist.gov (at
least some of you) to let me know that you are getting posts to the list?
In general, however, if you aren't getting anything, the situation is just
that nobody is sending anything.  No doubt, however, being Siouanists,
your restless minds are pondering Siouan issues, and being e-mail users,
however involuntarily, you may even ponder via email from time to time.
So, I suggest, ponder in the direction of the list.  On the other hand,
there is certainly something to be said for a list that only occasionally
produces a spate of conversation.  Especially as I take it you're all
rather a quiet lot, anyway!

Non-Sentential Utterances in Omaha-Ponca

1) I haven't been able (yet) to find free occurrences of adverbs,
numerals, and non-verbal nouns, perhaps because of the nature of the
corpus (Dorsey).

2) I do find lots of independent vocatives, though these do primarily
occur comma-spliced to a sentence.

Here are the patterns:

name + a, e.g., Tta'=xti=gi'kkida=bi=a 'Deer Taker' or 'Deer
Appropriater', where the name is that of a monster.

kin term + ha; this ha can be accented if in the second syllable, cf.
kkaN=ha' 'Grandma!'.  In the past I've considered that this might mean
that it was an inflection of sorts (sufix though it be), but it may just
mean it's a weird enclitic.

There's a very formal pattern, with ha, used as a way of expressing
thanks, that goes, Ha!  <kin term>=ha! (repeat several times).

Female-uttered vocatives often are marked for accent anomalously on the
final syllable, or on both the first and last syllables, e.g.,
ttu's^pa=dhaN' 'Dear grandchild!'.  I think this Dorsey practice, also
found in LaFlesche's recordings, reflects an anomaly about the
accentuation of at least *some* female vocatives.

Note the vocatives of endearment in =dhe 'male' and =dhaN 'female', cf.
ttu's^pa=dhaN, often using trucated terms and other diminutives, e.g.,
si'=z^iN=xc^i=dhaN (also with =dhe) 'o weally dear wittle offspwingie'.
That's not Dorsey's actual gloss.  si=z^iN is contracted from ni'si
'offspring' + z^iNga 'little'.

Hau also appears in vocatives, even in Dorsey, e.g., s^e'=ma hau' 'Halloo,
you folks over there!'

Some vocatives lack marking, e.g., just wi(')s^i?e' 'husband's brother!'.

3) Examples with demonstratives and postpositional forms:

wiNaN'wa=tta?  'where (is it)?'

dhe'=dhu ha 'here (it is)' (note declarative)

s^e'=thaN 'so far' (at ends of stories, approx. 'enough for you, then')

dhe'=the=tta=i ha 'they are at this place' (This involves =tta 'toward',
but looks like it's been verbalized, because of the pluralization.  Dhe
'this' + the 'the'.)

Gu'=di=heha=i ga hau' 'Go ye further away!' (note imperative +
assertional; gu = '-ish, toward' grade of ga 'yon'.  I've been thinking of
ga ~ gu as like aqui ~ aca, alli ~ alla, but this is a guess based mainly
on the way s^u (cf. s^e) works.  =di 'in, locative'.  I think the heha is
at least partly the =ha 'directions' enclitic, maybe reduplicated.
Something like 'yonder in various directions!'.)

This former example is like Du'=di ga hau! 'Come closer!' with du' instead
of gu' (cf. dhe 'this' where *ne might be more regular).

E=a'thaN a'daN?  'Wherefore?' (a'daN is used as an interrogative particle
(male, vs. edaN) in quotations.  E=a'thaN is something like 'what
(undesirable thing)?')

Note 's^e=e ha' 'that's it' in which e might be regarded as the predicate.
This sort of =e construction is basically a cleft 'it is that (that it
is)' with no 'be'.

4) Others:

Ahau!  'Greetings!' 'I/we approve!' 'Well!' START_OF_PARAGRAPH

AN'haN 'yes'

AN'kka=z^i 'no' (inflected, e.g., AN'kka=m=az^i 'I no') (can take
declarative ha)

5) Exlamations:

T(h)ena!  'Why! Imagine that!'
Uhu'!  'Oho!'
Wuhu!  [buuhuu]  'Wow!'
many others

My favorite is zt oda 'exclamation on examining a fine trinket', reported
by Say.

My other favorite is:

(H)iN'da(khe) 'hm, let's see' (Very close to IO 'we see it + male decl')

6) Immitative noises:

Hw!  Hw!  'sound of wind'
Khu! 'sound of wings'
various others

JEK