Lewis & Clark Phonetic Alphabet (Re: (O)maha)

[Koontz John E]

> The Iowa(y) name is from French Aiouez, which is is probably from Dakotan
> Ayuxwa or Ayuxwe or Ayuxba.

Incidentally, this is a good example of the syllable spelling approach to
rendering "foreign" words in American English.

Aiouez (which is pretty close to the Dakotan Ayuxwe variant) has
apparently been rendered in English as I-o-wa, literally or conceptualy,
pronounced [ayowe].  More recently the desyllabified version is pronounced
[ayow<schwa>] following majority conventions for sequences like Iowa.
The spelling Ioway is intended to restore or preserve the older, more
correct pronunciation, which is no longer correct (or is at least very
regional) for the state of Iowa.

Similar repronunciations of syllabic transcriptions according to
desyllabified norms account for things like Nebraska
[n<espsilon>br<aesc>sk<schwa>] for ne-bras-ka maybe rendering Ioway-Otoe
niN braske (or niN bra<theta>ke or niN brahke).  (It might possibly render
Omaha-Ponca niN bdhaska, but -a tends to be -e (ay) in early syllable
spellings, and the e for i (ee) gives things away.  If e is [i], a tends
to be [e], and only a in closed syllables, like bras or kar is [a].))  On
the other hand, the French transcription Niobrara - for niN obrara (IO) or
niN obdhadha (OP) - is now pronounced [nayobreir<schwa>] as far as I know.