Pawnee

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
> I was talking about some of these ethnonyms with an archaeologist at Wichita
> State U. last week and he felt that the Pa- in Pani, Paxoje and Padouca
> ought to be a morpheme. I don't know that I agree, but it's true that all
> may be borrowings.

I should mention an idea suggested to me by Heriberto Dixon, namely that
Pani, Pawnee, etc., might derive from (Sa)poney.  It would be a case of
converting the Poney variant of the Saponey ethnonym to apply to all
enslaved relatively western Indians.  This is interesting, but I don't
know if the timing and sources support it.  Pani(a) as a component of
ethnonyms is first attested in French from, I think, Miami-Illinois
sources (like Padouca?), quite early and already refers to Northern
Caddoan groups.  The attestations for it as a term in English for 'Indian
slave' and referring apparently still to Northern Caddoans are somewhat
later, but still early.  (Paging Alan Hartley!)