Poncal

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 12 Feb 2002 bi1 at soas.ac.uk wrote:
> as an interesting doilaect aside in the area of Bristol (Bristow or
> Bristoe in older writings) in Western England there is a
> pronunciation which makes final -a into -ol. ...

The closest comparable thing I can think of in a Siouan language is the
variable nasalization of some final vowels in Mississippi Valley,
apparently in enclitics, and especially Dakotan.  I'm thinking of Dakotan
=xti : =xtiN, =ki : =kiN, and so on, though there is something similar
going across the family, since, as I recall Winnebago has the nasalized
variant of =xtiN and Omaha-Ponca doesn't, and there seems to be something
similar happening with the =s^(i(N)) that appears in various capacities
(negatives, emphatics, etc.).  I think there are some -a(N)  variables,
too, but I'm not recalling them.  This is one of those details that
comparativists have neglected, without actually sweeping it under the
carpet.

At the other end of the word, OP has variably recorded nasality in initial
i, e.g., i(N)khe(de/=) 'shoulder', i(N)s^ta 'eye', and so on.  I think
these i's might all be organic (as opposed to fosilized Poss3 *i-).  This
and the variable recording of final -a(N) in OP may be matters of hearing,
or, rather, of English influence on the orthographic intepretation of
vowel allophones, but I think there's something more involved with the
enclitics.