U.S. President

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2001 Rgraczyk at aol.com wrote:
> A query: what is the word for 'U.S. President' in your Siouan language?  Crow
> has baa-iila'pxisaahka and Hidatsa has maa-a'arutaahka (in both lgs,
> indefinite prefix + grandfather).  Is this perhaps a pan-Plains phenomenon?

In Omaha-Ponca "President" (and other major government officials) was
ittigaN=...dhe 'his/her grandfather' + 'to cause' in Dorsey's time.  I
don't know if things are more specialized today.  The agent was
idhadi=...dhe 'his/her father' + 'to cause'.  The 'to cause' possessive
construction occurs in Dakotan, Omaha-Ponca (all Dhegiha?), and Winnebago
with kin terms.  I don't recall if it occurs in Ioway-Otoe, too.  I
suspect from contexts in the Dorsey texts that in OP it marks what might
be called ostensive kin, e.g., relations under the pipe dance, or cases
like this:  what might be called treaty relationships.  In Winnebago it's
the only construction for kin possession, I think, and is used with an
incorporated root 'living' for possession of animals.  (Which ties in with
'pet' possession investigations of the late Wick Miller.) Two further
Omaha-Ponca examples are e=...dhe 'relative' = 'the aforesaid (or maybe
just he/she/it)' + 'to cause' and ikhage=...dhe 'his (not her) friend' +
'to cause'.

JEK