postural verbs, verbs of motion

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2002 rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu wrote:
> In OP (Dorsey at least), we have a'z^i, meaning 'other' in the sense
> of 'different' or 'foreign'.  I'm puzzled by the OP a- / OS e-
> difference here.  In other cases, OP uses e- to mean this/that.

Perhaps also relevan:

OP e'z^aN=miN 'I suspect that', e'z^a=z^iN 'you ...', e'zh=iN 'he ...'

Os a'z^iN=miN 'I think or suppose that', a'z^a=z^iN 'you ...', a'z^(a)=iN
'he ...'

Here there's an alternation between e'z^a= and a'z^a= in the preverb,
which is paralleled by Dakotan ec^h(a)=iN 'to think, to suppose',
incidentally.  (These verbs are all glottal-stop stems.)

There's also an alternation of eaN 'how' and aN 'how' within Omaha-Ponca
itself.  I think the latter is really aaN, since we find examples like:

e=a'thaN a'=maN         wi'       bdha'th e=the=daN
how      I do something (it is) I I eat   apt

What shall I do so that I am likely to get something to eat?

JOD 1890:60.3


These last are just cases of e 'it, that, the aforesaid' vs. a 'something,
the indefinite'.  But this indefinite a- is ha- in Osage.

Incidentally, e=the'=daN is a sort of modal particle with variants ethe
(etha=i), ethedaN (contingent daN), ethegaN (subordinating gaN), and
negatives of these (like ethegaNbaz^i 'they are not apt' or ethegaNmaz^i
'I am not apt').

JEK