Dakota: verbs with 'hill' involved

[Rory M Larson]

>> If I understand correctly, the O-P cognate of Da _haN'/he'_ is animate?
>> This is interesting, since the Da (modern) form is not(at least with
>> reference to humans)!
>>
>> Buechel: "han vn: to stand upright, as of things, to remain, as said of
>> grass, arrows that strike the ground and stand; also of cattle etc. that
>> remain or stay in a certain locality. < Hel hanpi s^ke. Tatanka optaye
>> nunpa he lo There they say is soup. There remain two herds of buffalo>"
>>
>> With regard to our very topic, it looks like that on an earlier stage
>> (historical level) _haN'_ still had been used with animates (->
>> agliyahan etc.).

> As definite articles thaN is used with animates only, while the is used
> with inanimates only.  I'm not quite sure how it fell out that way in
> Dhegiha languages, since I don't think that animacy or inanimacy are
> primary attributes of the roots.

OP the is actually pretty complicated in its usage.  It can refer to
a standing inanimate thing, like a post or a house, but it is perhaps
most commonly used to refer to ordered sets of things, like (an armload
of) rocks, or both members of a set of paired body parts.  Thus, one
leg would be khe, "elongate", but both legs would be the, "the set".
One eye would be dhaN, "globular", but both eyes would be the.  A
single hand, however, is still the, I suppose because all the fingers
composing it are regarded as a set.  I think that the also refers
to very precisely located points, vs. dhaN, which implies a general
area if referring to a location.  And then we have a modal use of
the, which in modern times is understood to mean "evidently", and
which in the Dorsey texts from the 19th century seem to mean that
the thing happened prior to the current time or the current point
in the narrative, in a way that seems possibly perfective.  I think
Bob has argued that our the actually derives historically from two
different roots.  As John says, thaN seems to simply refer to standing
animates only.

What is the difference between haN and he in Dakotan?  Alfred's
example seems to be using he to refer to two remaining buffalo
herds, if I'm reading it right.  Would a herd be considered
animate in the way a single buffalo would?  Or could the he in
this case be referring to the _set_ of two herds?

Rory