Siouanists, eat your heart out.

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 Zylogy at aol.com wrote:
> Is that there modal embedding an example of something more general?

Well, I can't say I have any idea how to do a conditional potential in
Omaha-Ponca.  And I can't do it in English.  I'm surprised it wasn't
"might would've if management would've" since most speakers (of English) I
run into have the modal in the hypothesis and conclusion (apodosis?)
both.  I'd have to say "would perhaps have if management had" (or "maybe
it would-a if management had-a").  I see he has perfect marking on both
modals.

As far as Omaha-Ponca, I don't understand the modal particles very well,
but post-verbal (e=)iN=the 'perhaps' is probably relevant here.  I'm still
recovering from discovering that there's no direct way to say 'can'.