Nebraska

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Alan H. Hartley wrote:

> Thanks to everyone for the help. So...
>
> 		     IO n(y)iN-braske 'flat river'
> 			'         '
> 		       '	    '
> 		      '		      '
> 		Eng. Nebraska	 Fr. Platte
> 				       '
> 				       '
> 				 Eng. Platte

It's probably impossible to completely eliminate the Omaha-Ponca, Kaw,
Osage, etc., forms from consideration, as they are all pretty similar.
They might be cognates, though they're probably just calques among
languages with closely cognate vocabulary.

Note, however, that Dorsey says the river is called Ni TtaNga 'Big Water'
in Ponca usage.  More northerly languages seem to use variations on 'Shell
River'.  Pawnee has Kickatus (c = ts) also water + flat or Flat Water.
The pattern of referring to large streams as 'waters' is certainly common
in Mississippi Valley Siouan languages and seems to occur in Pawnee
(Caddoan) as well.  The Siouan languages do have various words for
'stream' applied to smaller streams, cf. OP wac^his^ka ~ wathis^ka, and,
in fact, the Platte is rated a watpa(daN) ~ wakpa(la) in Dakotan.

It might be interesting to look at comparative hydronymy in the area, but
I'm not sure if the appropriate resources exist.

> P.S. Is someone writing a Siouan etymological (or at least comparative)
> dictionary, and when will it be published? Something has to come of all
> this knowledge floating around!

A comparative dictionary is in the works (Contacts David Rood, Robert
Rankin, Richard Carter, Wesley Jones).

JEK