Quapaw wa-a- '1pl patient'.

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Sat Jan 17 07:27:59 UTC 2004


On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, R. Rankin wrote:
> Rory asks about Quapaw and Kaw.  My Quapaw conjugation data are more
> easily accessed than the Kaw right now, but all data are from Dorsey,
> who failed to record vowel length.  Here are some paradigms.  There are
> distinct reflexes of the instrumental i-.
>
> be thirsty, dry
> 1sg   aNda'Nbize
> 2sg   i'dibize
> 3sg     i'bize
> 1pl   we'bizawe   (we'- from *wa + i' + a-)

The -a- is not explicit in the surface form here as it is in Omaha-Ponca,
but it might well be here historically.  As I understood Carolyn, she was
saying 1pl here would be wa'biza=pe in Osage, which doesn't preserve the
i-locative either.  If I misunderstood and it was we'biza=pe (or, at
least, P12 (1pl) we- with other i-locative statives or transitives, then
we might have to consider that P12 lacks "auxiliary" a on the surface in a
range of forms in Os and Qu.

> And the final paradigm, o'z^eda 'be weary', which clearly shows that
> there are two /a/ vowels associated with the 1st pl, one preceding and
> one following the instrumental o-.
>
> 1sg  o'Nz^eda    (o'N- from *o + a'N)
> 2sg  odi'z^eda
> 3sg     oz^e'da
> 1pl  o'waz^edawe  (o'wa- from *wa + o' + a-)
>
> It is important in the last paradigm to note carefully the *underlying
> sequence of morphs.  This can be determined from the accentual pattern
> of the form. Recall that MVS *wa+o' > accented o'.

This seems pretty convincing to me.  What happens with P3p wa, if there's
any data on it?

I didn't mention what happens with OP P12 wa-a- and the a- or u-locatives
in OP, because, frankly, I couldn't remember.

Here are forms for ui'dha 'tell', i.e., u-gi'-dha (underlying morphemes):

'tell me'         iNw-iN'-   dha  < *u-iN-dha
'tell you'        u-  dhi'-  dha
'tell him'        u       i'-dha
'tell us'         u-a'wa  gi-dha
'tell them'       u'-wa-  gi-dha

These are forms with third person subjects or imperatives.  The 'tell
them' form has the original wa merged with u (< *o) as u'-, and then a
"new" transparent wa has been inserted after u'.  This is the normal
pattern with something like "u-locative verbs with animate objects,"
i.e., there are exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions.

With the a-locative P12 and P3p are indistinguishable, e.g., a'gaz^i 'to
command' yields wa'gaz^i 'he commanded us; he commanded them'.  (This is
Dorsey, with no marking of long vowels in the modern sense.)

The P12 a-wa- variant occurs with the u-locative and also with causatives,
as Rory has pointed out.  I think this last is a special case of occurring
"after incorporations."  You also find

z^u'=awagdhe 'with us' < z^u'=gdhe 'be with'
naNppe'=awahiN=i 'we were hungry' < naNppe'=hiN 'be hungry'
naN'=awappe 'he fears us' < naN'=ppe 'fear'
e=a'wagaN 'let us be so' < e=...gaN 'be so'

This was one of the patterns in LaFlesche's Osage that Carolyn reports as
not being found among speakers, and so representing one of LaFlesche's
Omaha-isms.

JEK



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