Query: Possessor Raising

[SHEA KATHLEEN DORETTE]

In answer to Bob's query, I asked Parrish Williams (a native speaker of
Ponca) today for a translation for 'My dog died' in Ponca and got "s^inuda
witta t?e."  When I asked him for something like 'The/my dog died on me,'
I got "s^inuda (witta) iN-t?e."  When I asked him outright if one could
say, "s^inuda aN-t?e," reading him the corresponding Quapaw sentence Bob
had recorded, or even "s^inuda witta aN-t?e," I got a definite no from
him. This confirms John's form for Omaha-Ponca.

By the way, I don't know if this is newsworthy for the Siouan list, but
Rolf Clements, a new subscriber to the list and a member, as am I, of the
Ponca Language Arts Council, Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, which is concerned
with developing a curriculum for the Frontier High School Ponca language
class taught by Henry Lieb (also a fluent, native speaker of Ponca), just
made a wonderful flier to be posted announcing the dinner I'm sponsoring
(on behalf of the Ponca Language Arts Council) for the Ponca elders, Ponca
speakers, and other interested people this Friday at noon at the Methodist
Church in White Eagle.  (Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the State of
Oklahoma Barbara Warner, a Ponca, is our invited speaker and is coming to
lead a discussion about Ponca clans.)  Anyway, the flier is in English,
captioned with one Ponca sentence written in the alphabet that PLAC
recently developed and that has been newly endorsed in a resolution by the
Ponca Business Council as the tribe's primary alphabet (with accent marks
omitted in e-mail and with a capital N standing for a raised n, indicating
that the preceding vowel is nasal, and a capital H standing for a raised
h, indicating that the preceding stop is aspirated): ANba gatHedi haNga
aNguhaN ta aNgatHaN PaNka ie ukikHunethe aNgatHaN! 'The Ponca Language
Arts Council is going to cook on this day!'

I think that to be able to extend the use of Ponca in this way, through a
written public announcement, is pretty exciting, since it reflects the
culmination of a yearlong process.  I've been wanting to sponsor a dinner
for the elders for a long time, just because I don't hear very much Ponca
being spoken around here.  I'm hoping that people will show up and will
speak a lot of Ponca, especially since I got enough food to feed an army!
I hope I'm not gushing too much or sounding as if I'm boasting or being
anything but proud of all the people who have contributed to this effort
(core PLAC members Parrish Williams, Henry Lieb, Lucy Cries For Ribs, the
late Josetta Rush, Bertha LeRoy, Dwight Buffalo Head, Carol Le Clair,
Alice Anderton, Phyllis Rush, Rolf Clements, and myself).  Any of you out
there who live near Ponca City are invited!

Kathy Shea

On Tue, 16 May 2000, Koontz John E wrote:

> The construction I recall for OP is git?e, e.g., (?) s^i'nudaN iNt?e.  'my
> dog has died'.  This has an unusual minor pattern argument structure.
> It's a dative object version of the dhiNge structure:  N[pat2]
> pro[pat1]-verb, e.g., a theme without any verbal concord (but third
> person, so ...) plus a marked patient pronominal inflection (experiencer
> or whatever).  I wonder if Quapaw could have shifted to the non-dative
> version from the dative one?
>
> I don't recall this verb with 'dog', but it definitely occurs with kinterms.
>
>