Borrowed Names in Omaha-Ponca

[Koontz John E]

It occured to me that the non-Dhegihanists on the list might have given up
in horror before they got to the last few lines of this post!  These
instances of affricates are all names, mostly Dakotan, that have been
partially adapted to Omaha-Ponca.

Note that these names are borrowed in the sense of occurring in OP text.
They are not actually being used as OP names, though presumably such a
degree of borrowing also occurs.  The case of J^o 'Joe, Joseph' is a bit
special.  Certain French names do circulate among the Omaha, at least, but
these are not the bearer's Omaha names, but versions of their English
(originally French) names, e.g., Me'(e)dhi 'Mary, Marie', Dhuza'dhi
'Rosalie', Zuze't(e?) 'Susette', J^o' 'Joe', "Frank" (details of
pronunciation unknown) 'Frank, Francis, Francois', Sasu' (regularly used
for Frank, maybe from Francois, though it superficially resembles
Sanssouci rather better).  The first of these I've heard myself.  The
second is attested in Fletcher & LaFlesche.  The rest are from Dorsey's
texts.  Possibly also in this group would be Bac^c^i' 'Peter Sarpy', if
that was a rendition of something like Liberte', which is gross
speculation.  This last might also be an Omaha-Ponca or Ioway-Otoe word,
though I haven't been able to identify it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 02:18:18 -0700 (MST)
From: Koontz John E <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>

...

> Foreign Names
> + C^[h]eghappa = C^hegha=(pabu ?) 'Beats the Drum' (Dakota)
> + J^o 'Joe (Joseph LaFlesche)'  English (originally French)
> + MaNac^[h]eba = Mawac^hepa (said to be Yankton)
> + Mic^[h]axpe Z^iNga = Mic^haxpi (C^histina?) 'Little Star' (Da)
> + MuNj^e XaN'j^e 'Big Bear' (IO)

...


Addendum:

C^he'gha is cognate to OP ne'(e)ghe 'pot'; I have no idea what the -ppa
element represents, though the name is glossed 'beats the drum'.  The
usual modern OP word for drum is kku'(u)ge 'box, drum', though this word
appears only in the sense of 'box' in Dorsey's texts, which have for
'drum', variously, dhe'(e)ghe gakku', ne'(e)ghe xakku' (misprint for next?
- x written with q in Dorsey), ne'(e)ghe gakku', and ne'(e)ghigakku'.
Dhe'(e)ghe is a doublet of ne'(e)ghe.  Both are glossed 'kettle' in the
Dorsey texts, though ne'(e)ghe appears also in the character name
Tte-ne'ghe 'Buffalo Bladder', and Swetland glosses ne'(e)ghe as 'water
vessel; bladder; bucket; pail; pot'.  He doesn't list dhe'(e)ghe.  It's
possible that the change in 'drum' words reflects a change in 'drum'
technology.  I seem to recall hearing that the large drum favored today is
a comparatively recent thing.  I've discussed the 'pot' word before and
suggested that the initial correspondence Da c^h : OP n (~ dh) reflects
Proto-Mississippi Valley *py > Da pc^ ~ c^h : OP bdh (verb) ~ n (noun) ~
dh.

I notice that MaNac^heba has intervocalic w elided.  This happens in OP
words like ttaNwaNgdhaN and I htink in Dakotan as well, in faster speech.
I don't know what the name might be.

The OP word for 'star' is miNkka'?e from Proto-Dhegiha *miNkka'x?e.  That
suggests PSi *wiNhka'x?e, whereas Dakota mic^ha'xpi suggests PSi
*wiNhka'xpi.  It is possible that -pi here is a reflex of the plural *=pi.
Another set with =pi like this that's been mentioned on the list is
'cloud'.  As far as the PDh form, simply adding -e to *wiNhka'x, the
residuum of the stem, shouldn't produce *x?e, so the morphology here is
obscure to me.  The form of *wiNhka'x is atypical for a Siouan stem, if
not compound, derived, or borrowed, though it would be going to far to say
it was impossible.

Since the word for 'little' is translated into OP, this name is along the
lines of something like 'Little Et-wal' as an English rendition of French
Petite Etoile.  That is, it's partially, but not wholely, translated, with
the untranslated part somewhat adapted in phonology.

The IO name is not translated, but taken over intact.  It would come out
something like Wasabe TtaNga in OP.  Neither element in IO is cognate with
anything common in Omaha-Ponca or Dakota, though obscure reflexes of both
elements exist

Clearly the process of rendering "foreign" names into OP was a somewhat
complex one, with a rich range of possibilities.