Omaha athe, etc.

[Rankin, Robert L]

>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?

Yep, exactly!

>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.

I think I'll start by trying Catherine's excellent suggestion of

     aNzhaN' aNthe'

My only caveat here has to do with the fact that the verb 'sleep' here has a
final nasal vowel.  Since the beginning of the putative 'we must have slept'
contains the same vowel, there is some possibility of confusion on the part
of speakers.  Maybe some verb that ends in an oral V would improve chances.

Bob