EgaN (was Re: Tense, aspect and time in Siouan.)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2000, Catherine Rudin wrote:

> I don't doubt your historical analysis, John, but surely something this
> fossilized isn't to be analyzed as part of present-day Omaha grammar.  In the
> modern language e=dhegaN is simply the verb "to think", so this really isn't
> "another egaN".

I agree that it's lexicalized.  I haven't had a chance to examine the
pitch contours, though, and I wonder if it doesn't accent as it does
because the syllable marked as accented is actually the second accented
syllable.

> Actually all or at least most of the "other egaN's" are clearly related
> semantically; I'd tend to assume they are the same item, just taking on
> different shades of meaning in different contexts.  So there's just one egaN
> (maybe 2?), with various uses.  Are you(all) really suggesting there are 6 or
> more homophonous items here?

I think I must have phrased this poorly.  I mean that these are
essentially 6 different syntactic/lexical contexts of egaN use.  I agree
it's all one stem, though I'm not sure that the two clause markers (or
the use in 'to think') preceived as related to each other or to the rest
of the uses.

JEK