(O)maha

[David Costa]

Only in the sense that initial short vowels come and go unpredictably with
tribe names in M-I (and elsewhere in central Algonquian). It can't be normal
phonological processes, since word-initial short vowels are *not* deleted by
sound law in old Illinois. In the modern (19th century) language, yes.

Incidentally, this word never would have been */oma(:)ha/ in Miami-Illinois,
since word-initial short /o/ is not allowed in the language. If it ever had
an initial V, it only could have been /a/. But no name for the Omaha is
attested in any Miami-Illinois source, other than Marquette's map.

There *is* an attested name for the Omaha in Shawnee, though: /maha/, plural
/mahaaki/.

Dave Costa


>> Marquette wrote < Maha > on his map of the Mississippi, a name he got from
>> the Illinois-speaking Peoria.
>
> Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place.  Could the deletion of initial o-
> in an ethnonym have anything to do with Miami-Illinois morphology?
>
> JEK