Borrowed Names in Omaha-Ponca

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Koontz John E wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> > The Dorsey dictionary [the NAA ms.] distinguishes these forms as
> > dialectal within OP: dhe'(e)ghe is Ponka, and ne'(e)ghe is Omaha.
>
> It should be possible to determine if the distribution in Dorsey matches
> the sources of his examples.  I'll try to do that.

I've always wanted to do something like this, given that Dorsey makes it
possible!

For 'kettle':

PpadhiNnappaz^i (Ponca)
ne'ghe 211.9, 211.14, 226.4, 227.8, 231.17, 328.10, 438.19

Big Elk (Omaha)
ne'ghe 338.12

George Miller (Omaha)
ne'ghe 560.12

Frank LaFlesche (Omaha)
ne'ghe 247.2
dhe'ghe 247.14

Joseph LaFlesche (Omaha)
dhe'ghe 331.7, 331.11

TteukkaNha (Omaha)
u'haN 254.5

ANphaNttaNga (= Big Elk) (Omaha)
U'haNttaNga 'Big Kettle' (a name) 427.14

Note also uga's^ka 'to hang a kettle over a fire', bas^aNdha 'to push over
a kettle and spill it', in which the reference to a kettle seems to be
implicit.  'Earthen pot' is given once as maNdhiN'kka ne'ghe.

So, the only users of dhe'ghe in the sense of 'kettle' are Joseph
LaFlesche and (once of two tokens) Francis LaFlesche.  Note that Dorsey
did consider the LaFlesche family to be of Ponca origin, a sore bone of
contention with at least Francis, who may have considered that it
endangered family entitlements to severaltized lands.  However, several
Ponca sources use ne'ghe extensively and none use dhe'ghe.  Some Omahas
use u'haN (cf. Da wo'haN) 'something to cook in'.  We don't really know
from the contexts or glosses if any of the terms have specific references
as to size or shape.  No one is found using more than one form, but it's
not clear that this is not chance.

> For 'drum'

NudaN'agha (Ponca)
dhe'ghe gakku' 54.1, 54.6, 369.1, 369.3, 380.6

PpadhiNnappaz^i (Ponca)
ne'ghe gakku' 445.4

Hexaga Sabe John Nichols (Ponca)
ne'ghigakku 633.10

UhaNgeza^N (Ponca)
ne'ghigakku 640.7

ANphaNttaNga (Omaha)
ne'ghe gakku' 471.13

S^aNgeska (Omaha)
ne'ghe xakku' (presumably an editorial error for ne'ghe gakku') 298.2
ne'ghe gakku' 298.4

George Miller (Omaha)
ne'ghe gakku' 601.3, 601.11, 601.17, 602.1

With 'drum' all Omahas and one Ponca use ne'ghe gakku', while two other
Poncas use ne'ghigakku and one uses dhe'ghe gakku'.  Unfortunately, we
don't know what this man used for 'kettle', and we don't know what the
LaFlesche's used for 'drum'.

> For 'bladder'

TteukkaNha (Omaha)
ttene'eghe 254.10, 255.8, 256.4, 259.11

Tteu'kkaNha's useage for '(buffalo) bladder' is consistent with his usage
for 'kettle'.

===

In summary, while Dorsey's contention that dhe'ghe is Ponca and ne'ghe is
Omaha is not inconsistent with his understanding of matters, it is clearly
a significant oversimplification.  Ne'ghe and ne'ghe gakku' or ne'ghigakku
are the majority forms.  A few individuals, who may or may not all be of
Ponca origin, say dhe'ghe or dhe'ghe gakku'.

Incidentally, LaFlesche gives t.se'xe in forms for pot, kettle, and drum
in Osage.  In theory this should have been dse'xe, representing ce'ghe.
It's tempting to wonder if he could hear a difference between reflexes of
*R and *t.  In any event, he effectively writes *R here like *ht (tt).
However, he writes it as ds in dse' 'lake' (Os ce', OP ne') and idse'gi
'uncle' (Os ice'ki, OP ine'gi).