Attn. Dhegiha specialists.

[Koontz John E]

OK, having read ahead ...

I actually make it

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
> KO-THA-U-CA-SHE / THI-CE-XTSI MO-NI / KO-ON-THAIHA-IN

Top:

KO-THA U-GA-SHE THI^N-GE XTSI MO-NI

Kkudha  ugas^e  dhiNge= xc^i maNniN
Friend, ailment lacking very (you?) go
"Go (or 'you went') in health."

Bottom:

KO^NON-THA IHA

KkaN=aNdha=i=ha
He threatened (charged) me.

As Bob points out, the raised n's are missed in Doerner's transciption.  I
think all the C's are actually G's, too, from what I can make of the
photo.  He accidentally repeats the NI of the top part as IN in teh bottom
part, too.

Everybody else got the first one before I checked my mail this evening,
but I think I have the last one.  See LaFlesche 1933:89b k.oN-tha 'to
attack, to charge upon an enemy, to raid, to threaten, to menace'.
LaFlesche gives the active inflection, and shows that both stems kkaN and
dha are inflected, e.g., akkaN=bdha 'I threatened him'.  I assume that
kkaN=aNdha is the first person patient form, though I don't think there's
a parallel formation with gaN=dha 'to wish' (also with both stems
inflected).

I think there's a very good chance that the message was composed by
LaFlesche, though I don't know what connection he had with Curtis, and I
don't know what events in the life of Curtis (presumably) or circumstances
between Curtis and (presumably) LaFlesche the message may refer to.
It seems that somebody threatened Curtis (presumably) and that the
presenter wishes him well.

As far as the language, it is essentially Omaha-Ponca once you see the G's
instead of C's.  The orthography isn't quite the usual one for LaFlesche,
assuming it's him, but he wasn't always consistant on raised n vs.
n-in-line (KO^N-ON-THA), and I suspect that xtsi for OP xti ~ xc^i isn't
unreasonable for someone who's recently been working on Osage.  The use of
th for *dh instead of y or d shows it's not Kaw or Quapaw, though there's
no evidence that LaFlesche in particular worked with either language
(though he does lists some names from both in The Omaha Tribe).  The use
of =i=ha PROXIMATE-DECLARATIVE (male) (in archaic form) pretty well shows
it's Omaha-Ponca.  The -xtsi is odd, but not impossible.  He is using o in
ko-tha (kkudha) 'friend', but he's back to u- in ugashe (ugas^e).  Mo-ni
could represent either maNdhiN or maNniN, which in OP terms would be the
third person (or imperative, though there's no imperative particle) in the
case of maNdhiN, or it would be the second person maNniN < maNhniN <
maNs^niN.  He always wrote aN (~ oN) as oN, except when he wrote uN (u
apparently schwa) occasionally.

JEK