Osage

[rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu]

>>   Now, am I
>> understanding correctly that Osage Opha=p=a is fully cognate with
>> Omaha Uha=i, and is also the name for the Ohio River?

> The Osage for 'to follow' is opha.  This is one of the stems where
> Omaha-Ponca have h for ph.  The Omaha plural is =i.  The Osage plural is
> =pi.  I believe the analog of the Omaha =hau (earlier =ha) male
> declarative is =a, in Osage, and that this merges with =pi as =pa.  The
> older Omaha-Ponca female declarative is =he.  Osage =e also merges with
> the plural =pi, as =pe.  From this I reconstruct *opha=p=e as the Osage
> equivalent of uha=i=hau.  This is not attested, as far as I know, and
> presumably does not exist.

> What I meant was to poke a little fun at the possiblity that Ohio /ohaio/
> in English could have come from anything in Dhegiha at all.  [...]

All right, John, you drew me out and got me
square on that one!  Well done!!  I'll take
it as established from here that Omaha Uhai
is a morphologically rationalized adoption
of the English name 'Ohio'.

Now I'll leave it to you explain this
unexpected addition to the Osage vocabulary
set to Carolyn!  ;-)

By the way, what is the Osage name for the
Ohio River, really?

Rory