Horns and Lice

[Koontz John E]

Following up on Rory's "two e's" conundrum, I looked to see if Dorsey
happened to write one of the other of these two forms - he 'horn' and hE
(?) 'louse', as Rory has suggested - with e-breve.

I did discovered he'=khe(breve) and he'=the(breve), both 'the horn' (at
various angles), but both 'horn', but both 'horn' and 'louse/lice' are
always just he'.

However, for what it is worth, I did notice that in compounds he 'horn' is
fairly consistantly not accented when initial, or, if accented, is
immediately followed by an accented first syllable in the next element,
even though this produces two accented syllables in a row with the second
being an element not normally accented (like the first syllable of a verb
with an inner instrumental).  Dorsey has a pronounced tendency to
regularize the form of a word, and he may simply have been in the habit of
writing 'horn' as he'.

So, we have he=ga'zaza 'Split Horns', he=ba'zab=az^i 'Unsplintered Horns',
he'=ga'zaza=xti 'Horns Very Full of Snags (Tines?)',
he'=z^aN[']kka=ttaN'ga 'Big Forked (= Juvenile) Horns', he=saN'nide 'Horn
on One Side', he=gha'p[p]a 'Scabby Horns'.  These are all personal names.
Half the time 'horn' is clearly 'antler', but this is a standard pattern
in Omaha-Ponca where he' means 'horn, antler', though Dorsey always
translates it 'horn'.  In he'=z^aN[']kka=ttaN'ga, I assume from the
location of accent in ttaN'ga that z^aNkka is accented z^aN'kka.  In that
case, then, and in he'=ga'zaza=xti we have two successive accented
syllables, and probably the first accent is spurious.  Dorsey does also
list he'=bac^[c^?]age 'Blunt Horns' and he'=waNz^i'dha 'One Horn'.  I
think the latter is an adaptation of Dakota (he)waNz^i'la 'one (horn)'.
WaNz^i'dha is certainly unprecedented in Omaha-Ponca, as far as I know.
I don't know how that compound would be stressed in Dakota.  The
implication of the OP form is he'=waz^i'dha, even though the first element
isn't actually written with accent.

One possible implication of this accentual pattern in compounds with he'
'horn' is that he' 'horn' is short, at least in compounds, e.g.,
he=ga'zaza as opposed to *hee'=gaza'za, though, of course, my usual
assumption has been that accent falls on the first element in a compound,
even if that element happens to be monosyllabic.  The he' 'horn' examples
above would be largely problematic for me under that assumption.

I don't have any compounds with he' 'louse/lice' from Dorsey.  Swetland's
UmoNhoN-iye of Elizabeth Stabler does list he'=saN 'gnits, gnats', i.e.,
nits, the young or eggs of lice, suggesting maybe hee'=saN.  It would be
nice to have some further examples transcribed by a consistant, modern
source.

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz