Omaha-Ponca Long Vowls

[Koontz John E]

Ardis mentions:
> at the school, we do note them (esp. when contrastive) ex. xtaathe 'I
> like', xtatha 's/he likes'

Sadly, I am perhaps the last person one should discuss OP long vowels
with.  However, I did notice examples like this involving a first person.
Examples like this are, of course, polymorphemic, and, moreover, in my
experience, have decided falling pitch patterns on them that contast
nicely with the pattern on the coresponding third person.

You get this pattern with a causative like xta=dhe:

3rd person xta*=dha(=i)  'like, love'
1st peson  xta*=adhe

Or with the ma= instrumental:

3rd ma*=sa(=i)  'cut (sever with blade)'
1st ma*=ase

Or with the a-locative:

3rd a*gdhiN(=i)   'sit on/down'
1st a*agdhiN

I've used * to mark the place at which the pitch seemed to me to fall.
THat is V1*V2 has V1 high(er) and V2 low(er).  I would normally just write
an accent mark over the V1.

You get the same pattern with the mu= instrumental, too:

3rd mu*=sa(=i)    'sever with a shot'
1st mu*=ase

In fact, the latter sounded to me like [mw*=aase].

Similarly with we'ahide 'far' and similar examples, which I heard as
[we*aahide].

I wonder if the tendency in at least the recording of Omaha-Ponca to find
CV=V'... where CV'=V would be expected might have something to do with
this last transformation, in which it looks like CV1'V2 is transformed to
CV1*V2V2.  The length is perhaps perceived as accent, while the stranded
pitch fall after V1 is not noticed.

The two remarks that round this out are:


1) in monosyllables and second-syllable accented dissylables I noticed a
distinct falling pitch on the (single) vowel in question, e.g.,

he' [he*e]
naNba' [naNba*a]

2) accented vowels do normally sound somewhat longer to me, so that in the
examples above of 3rd vs. 1st contrasts I wouldn't care to say that the
vowel in the third person cases sounded noticeably shorter to me.  But it
certainly lacked the falling contour.

JEK