(O)maha

[Koontz John E]

Not to mention Mahar.

I was just reading Bill Bright's comments in the SSILA Newsletter on
Colonial French truncated tribal names in Plains and Prairie region, like
(Nadoues)sioux and Kaw < Ka(n)(sas).  He didn't mention Cree < Cri(s) <
Cristeneaux, by the way!  Or Ree < (Arica)ris, which must be the same
pattern.  However, he did mention some cases of placenames in which
initial O- reflects French 'aux', as in Oka < Aux Ka(s) 'at the Kaws' and
Ozarks < aux Arcs 'at the Arkansas'.

It suddenly occurred to me, speculatively, that the truncation of initial
O in Omaha might be either this form of affective truncation or, equally,
it might be the result of taking it to be aux 'at the'.  I don't know that
Omaha is ever attested in the early accounts.  So perhaps Omahas was
reanalyzed as 'aux Mahas'?  I believe that during much of the 1700s the
Omahas were living at a particular place known since as Omaha Creek, so
that thinking of the place as 'aux Mahas' might have been natural.  This
is also somewhat consistant with referring to the Poncas as 'mahas
erran(t)s' 'wandering Omahas'.

Of course, Osage doesn't get reduced to Sage.  In fact, I believe O(s) was
the usual form.  But perhaps the Osage where not associated with a
particular place for so long, or perhaps, the lot having fallen on the
first syllable, it was not liable to reanalysis.

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