Nebraska (Re: Ponca)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Alan H. Hartley wrote:
> You're right: I imagine the -r was simply to insure a pron. as [a]
> instead of [eI].

This is one reason I think Nebraska may be an attempt to render IO n(~)iN
braske as ne-bras-ka, rather than OP niN bdhaska, which would have been
ne-blas-kar or maybe ne-bthas-kar.  Unfortunately the vaguaries of
recording r-like sounds and /a/ in English orthography make it difficult
to be sure.  The use of ne for n~iN or niN does suggest that an English
rendition of whichever form it was is in question.  Of course, the modern
pronunciation of the state name is a spelling-b ased pronunciation that
uses lax-e or an unstressed reduction to barred-i.