Another (?) Omaha particle.

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, Koontz John E wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Jun 2000, R. Rankin wrote:
> > But... In working up a paper on discourse here I chose the story of "The
> > rabbit and the turkeys" (Dorsey 1890 pp.  557ff.) because I have that

It's 577ff.  There's another version pp. 65-66 for Is^tiNnikhe, and this
is part of the standard Winnebago/Omaha/etc. Trickster cycle elaborated by
Radin in his Trickstger study.

> > story in three different Siouan languages.  In it Dorsey has numerous
> > instances of the particle /aN'/ (accented nasal [a]) with the meaning he
> > translates consistently as 'having'.  These appear to be essentially
> > perfects in that, in most if not all cases, they signal that some event
> > had *already* taken place when the action or state of the main verb in
> > the sentence does.  ...
>
> I'd have to check this particular text, but one or two of the texts simply
> substitute aN or gaN for egaN in the sense of the 'preceding action
> subordinate'.  I don't know if these things are idiosyncratic, influence
> of another language, or a dialect.  Of course egaN is just e=g(i)-aN, or,
> maybe better e-g(i)=aN, given where the inflection falls.

Yes.  This is a substitute in this story for standard egaN.  Note that it
takes the =bi grade of the plural/proximate before it, as does egaN.  The
speaker, George Miller, was, as far a I know, a very standard speaker,
hired by Dorsey to consult with him in Washington.  With a few others he
defines the standard in the sense of the usage found in Dorsey's work.
I'd have to conclude that he did the aN substitution deliberately, in
immitation of some model that is not explained.

JEK