Sarpy

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004, Michael Mccafferty wrote:
> > It occurs to me to wonder how Abadie [abadi'] or [abadsi'] might manifest
> > with d as c^c^ as in Bac^c^i, while Baptiste/Battiste with (t)t has that
> > come out as d in Badi'ze.
>
> John, I can't quite understand the statement or question, but it didn't
> occur to me that Abadie/Labbadie was part of the mix. That name could
> certainly be the source of something like Bac^c^i. Abadie would be
> [abadzi].

I phrased this badly.  I meant, it seems odd that Abadie, a word with
voiced d (or dz) in French, would come out Bac^c^i', with a voiceless
geminate c^c^ [tts^], while Baptiste, a word with a voiceless, possibly
geminate t (or ts) in French, would come out Badi'ze, with a voiced d.
Note that the earlier voiced b in both cases comes out b.  You'd expect
Baj^i and Batti'ze.  At least those seem more regular.

It's possible that subtle factors in the assimilation of nonsense sequences
like these to Omaha-Ponca canons of word form are at work.  For example,
eliminating initial a- would make Bac^c^i sound less like a first person,
which would be a strange form for a name.  The ideal would be Bac^c^ibi
'He ...s', whatever *c^c^i meant.  It might be being assimilated to c^hi
'to have intercourse with'.  Still, to my admittedly non-native
sensibilities Batti'ze seems as reasonable as Badi'ze.  I understand -s >
-ze, because voicing is normal in post tonic position for fricatives.

The first case calls to mind a reference to a Jewish pedlar in Lurie's
Mountain Wolf Woman.  As I understand it, when asked how MWW knew or
remembered he was Jewish, Lurie replied that no Winnebago in the old days
would forget later that someone was a j^u, having heard it, because it was
amusing, j^u being the Winnebago cognate of OP c^hi, and the sort of
chance homophony that stuck in your mind.  This man was called s^orot,
from his pronunciation of shirt.  I wonder if he said s^ort, and the
additional o brings the name into accord with Winnebago syllable
structure, though historically the epenthesis works the other way in
Winnebago:  *s^rot > *s^orot.  (Note, however, that final -t would be
unsual in Winnebago, since *t(e)# > c^#, so *s^rot < *s^oroc^.)