Syntax of Speaking

[Koontz John E]

Rory asked about how 'speak' might be used without some sort of argument.
The answer seems to be that mainly it means 'say something unspecified or
understood out loud'.

90:102.4
i'a=ga
speak IMP
Go on!

90:148/14-15
kki s^iNgaz^iNga akki'wa i'e      wakkaNdagi=hnaN=bi=ama
and children     both    to speak they were forward only they say
"And both children were quite precocious about learning to talk."

90:151.3
ihaN'      e'dhaNba i'e      naN?aN'=bi=ama, nu'=akha
his mother too      speaking he heard        the man
"The man heard his mother speaking, too."

90:195.20
i'dhae=hnaN=i
you were speaking
"You were saying something."

To which the response is:

90:196.40
aNdhaNdha=b=az^i
we did not speak
"We didn't say a word."

Those are a few of the numerous 'speak up', 'say something out loud' sorts
of examples.

In addition, I have found some examples that come close to complementation
in spite of my earlier and premature claim that there were none.

90:196.15-16
i'dhae=hnaN=i.     eda'daN ed=e's^=egaN       i'a=i=ga
you were speaking  what    you having said it say it
"You said something.  Tell me what you said."

Here, an egaN clause acts as a sort of quasi-argument.

90:483.2-3
kki ni'kkas^iNga=(a)ma dhe'=ama umaN'haN=ama eda'daN i'e=khe=aN=s^te
and the people         these    the Omahas   what    they speak soever
s^aN' wabdhittaN maNbdhiN
yet   I work     I walk

"And these people, the Omahas, whatsoever they say I go on working for
them." (or, "no matter what people say I go on working for the Omahas"?)

This seems to show eda'daN i'e 'say something'.

90:684.1
i'e   j^uba=xc^i idha'e wi'bdhahaN    s^u=dhe'=dhadhe=tta=miNkhe
words just a few I say  I pray to you I will send to you
"I will briefly petition you."

Here we have a sort of cognate object (?) i'e i'e 'words to speak'.

90:748.10
ni'kkas^iNga ukke'dhiN bdhu'ga ua'wagikki      i'a=i
indians                all     to side with us he speaks
"He tells all the Indians to side with us."

This seems to involve CLAUSE i'e in a straightforward way, though as such
it is quite unusual.

Finally, I found this one example, or almost, of 'to speak Omaha', if not
of 'to say X in Omaha'.

90:443.15
umaN'haN i'e=the thappi=b=az^i           dhaN'z^a
Omaha    speech  they did not speak well though,
s^aN' ua'wagidha=i=the
yet   they told it to us

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz