Omaha athe, etc.

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu wrote:
> So we have (pre-)historically two different words that come
> out as /the/ in OP.  One is the positional, 'standing inanimate',
> (or 'plural, bundled').  The other is a cognate of Hidatsa /rahe/,
> which means 'to say that'.  The former modifies nouns.  The
> latter works with verbs to convey the sense that evidently the
> verb took place.  By analogy, other positionals have also been
> introduced into the post-verbal slot with the same EVIDENTIAL
> meaning.  So any time we find a positional after a verb in OP,
> the implication is that the verb 'evidently' happened.  Is this
> a valid re-statement of what you're saying?

This is my understanding of Bob's position.  I had left things at the
point where rahe didn't exist to provide a cognate the for the
narrative/evidential usage.  I wasn't sure whether at what point the full
set of inanimate articles got to be used evidentially.  I wasn't aware of
any examples of this outside Omaha-Ponca, except for /the/.  I think Bob
and Carolyn have said they have some Kaw and Osage examples of *the (c^he,
che), but nothing else.  Textual materials for all of the Dhegiha
languages aside from Omaha-Ponca are scarce.

> For /athe'/, it looks like we have two hypotheses:
>
>      1)  It is the 1st-person inflected form of /the/.
>
>      2)  It is a separate, uninflected particle.

One might want to distinguish two cases of (1), (1a), where other forms
exist, at least in principle if perhaps unobtainable today, and (1b),
where only the first person exists.

There is another particle that can be rendered 'must' - I think with an
obligational sense - which is as^e.  It contracts with =tta irrealis and
=bi plural and proximate as =tt=as^e, =b=as^e.

The two examples of 'I must have' are both in Is^tiniNkhe, the Turkeys,
Turtle, and Elk, from PpadhiNnaNppaz^i, an Omaha speaker.  They are:

agdha'the athe' 'I must have eaten my own'  (1890:63.5)
az^aN' athe' 'I must have slept'            (1890:63.6)

I looked for other persons with various plausible glosses and found only:

s^aN me'ha=       the=atta   kkaN'=bdha
yet  winter hides the beyond I want

s^aN Kansas e'=di=           ge=  s^te=aN
yet  K.     (they are) there must be so-ever

1891:19.2-3

And I desire winter hides "beyond all."  And (in) Kansas "they must be in
some places."

I want winter hides above all.  There must be some here and there in
Kansas.

The quoted bits of the glossing are from Dorsey's interlinear.  I've
rephrased it somewhat in the next verison.

The second example is glossed with "must" but is third person.  Note that
there is no =bi or =i.  I didn't expect one with an article.  Here, even
though =the 'the upright' is the article with "(stack of) hides" in the
preceding sentence, =ge is used in the evidential slot, because the hides
are conceived of as being available in small lots here and there in
Kansas.

Perhaps corresponding to a second person there is:

dhaz^aN' e'z^aNmiN 'I suspect you sleep' (90:227.3)

aN's^panaN i'dhibdhaN=zti e'z^aNmiN 'I suspect you have had your fill of
looking at me' (90:230.16)

wac^hi'gaghe i'dhahida=i e'z^aNmiN 'I supect they are tired of
waiting to dance' (90:268.1)

we'dhaz^iNga=i e'z^aNmiN 'I suspect they speak slightingly of (belittle)
us' (90:441.1)

edhi'giga=i e'z^aNmiN 'I suspect they say that about you' (90:441.3)

[Notice the apparent case of eigige (?) 'to say something to some about
someone' (?) < eg(i)e 'to say to', apparently a hapax legomenon in the
texts.]

Note that the slots in which the/khe/dhaN/ge occur, other than as articles
per se, are:

- sentence finally with perfect/past/evidential readings
  sequence =(i)=EVID
  sequence =(bi)=EVID
  sequence =bi=EVID=ama (only the and khe)
- sentence finally after =ttE irrealis with the reading 'shall surely'
  =tta=(i)=the (the only)
- subordinate clause finally with 'when' readings
- in indefinite/interrogative compounds with 'where/when' readings

- in 'suddenly'/'frequently'/'begin to' auxiliaries (the/he/naN and
  gdhe/khe/gdhaN)