St. Louis?

[R. Rankin]

For myself, I've never heard /ppahi'/ used to mean 'neck'.  Ttahu, yes, ppahi,
no.  Maybe it's just an OP usage.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rory M Larson" <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 5:15 PM
Subject: RE: St. Louis?


>
>
>
>
> John wrote:
> > It's interesting to consider that ppahiN (I think the nasalization is
> > right here) z^ide might be related to pain cort, but it doesn't look like
> > it holds up, and I've always assumed that Fletcher & LaFlesche were
> > correct in asserting that it was a reference to Clark's residence there.
>
> The nasalization ought to be right if we're understanding ppahiN'
> as ppa 'head' + hiN 'hair', as is only sane.  Fletcher and La Flesche
> (p. 107) actually don't show it as nasalized: pahi', even though they
> do show the nasalization for hiN', 'hair', and pehiN', 'hair on forehead'.
> It seems like a lot of nasalization is lost in 20th century Omaha,
> especially for [iN].  As far as I can make out, our speakers seem to
> prefer the pronunciation to be ppahi'.  If there's a nasalization there,
> it's awfully slight.
>
> Dorsey also gives the St. Louis name in his dictionary, and he says
> explicitly that it is ppa'hi z^i'de, "Those who have their necks red".
>
> If we are assuming that punning humor played a role here as John suggests,
> then there could actually have been several valid forms of the word.  The
> ppahiN' z^ide, "red hair", form might have been coined in the early 1800's
> during the tenure of Governor Clark, while the ppa'hi z^i'de, "red neck"
> form might have been an older form dating to the late 18th century in
> reference to the blatantly sunburned necks of the first white men they
> had much contact with, who would have arrived from St. Louis every summer
> around August having poled their craft up the Missouri with their backs
> mostly to the sun all the way from the Kansas City region.  This form
> itself might have been a pun on a prior, possibly non-Omaha form which
> incorporated the first element of the French Pain Court.  We may never
> know for sure, but I think it's premature to say that the relationship
> doesn't hold up.  I'd still like to know what IO and other Dhegihans
> called St. Louis.
>
> Rory
>
>