OP /the/ vs. /dhaN/ (Re: Dakota: verbs with 'hill' involved)

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 11 Apr 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
> 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.

Or maybe hands are just upright things?

> I think that /the/ also refers to very precisely located points, vs.
> /dhaN/, which implies a general area if referring to a location.

This materializes in the temporal use of /the/ and /dhaN/, e.g., in 'when'
uses.

> 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.