Ponca

[Alan H. Hartley]

Koontz John E wrote:

> 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.

Thanks: I'd forgotten that I hadn't figured out the -ra in
Hochunk~Hochungra! (Does ['] indicate stress?) All the examples I have
from the 18th and 19th centuries have -ra: the plain Hochunk type
doesn't show up till the 20th.

Does -ra exist in the Dhegiha languages? Of course, people coming
upriver might well have learned a Chiwere name for the Ponca.

Alan