Ponca

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 10 Feb 2002, Alan H. Hartley wrote:
> Lewis & Clark frequently (but by no means always) write the name with
> [r] which I've usually taken to be a spelling indication of the length
> of the preceding [a]. But there are several cases in which it seems more
> than that, e.g., Ponceras, Poncaries.
>
> Does this ring a bell with anyone?

The Winnebago article (perhaps not a "definite" article per se) is -ra,
cf.  Hooc^aN'k ~ Hooc^aNgara 'Winnebago'.  And, maybe more to the point,
Ioway-Otoe has are 'that, those'.  I'm not able to offer a clear
explanation of the conditions under which these [articles would be
present, though I can at least say that they are absent from the first
element in compounds.