Same word, different meanings

[Kathleen Shea]

Yes, there's a similar word naNzhiNha 'hair (on the head).'  I don't think
there's any reason for Rory to apologize since vowel length, pitch accent,
and intonation in Omaha-Ponca seem to interact in ways that I don't think
any of us have quite figured out.  There are so many apparent homonyms in
the language that I keep wondering if perhaps I'm missing something.  When I
ask speakers about two words, I sometimes get a shrug and they say that they
sound "about the same"; on the other hand, I some speakers think there
should be no homonyms in a language and try to make an artificial
distinction between two words that probably sound the same.  But  I  haven't
really worked with enough speakers to generalize to such an extent!  By the
way, I've had two speakers recently insist that the Omaha-Ponca indefinite
article wi  'a, one' does not contain a nasal vowel (as opposed to Dorsey's
transcription).  I originally transcribed the word with an oral vowel, as
_wi_,  in a rabbit story but then changed it to be in synch with Dorsey's
transcription!  This points up the difficulty of distinguishing oral from
nasal vowels at the ends of words in Omaha-Ponca, especially /i/ from /iN/
or among /ii/, /iNiN/, /iNi/ (all possiblities).

Kathy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: "Siouan List" <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: Same word, different meanings


> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
> > Just did that, and got shot down.  This time our speaker
> > held that noNz^iN 'stand' and noNz^iN 'rain' are in fact
> > homonyms, as Kathy originally stated. ...
>
> >   S^ettaN'na naNz^iN' naNz^iN'.
> >   Still      rain     stands
> >   It's still raining.
>
> This is just the reaction I got in 1985, with the same example, almost.  I
> got just:
>
> NaNz^iN naNz^iN.  'It keeps on raining.'
>
> This was considered a bit along the lines of word play, I think, though
> not characterized as humorous.  It was just considered interesting that
> you could say this.
>
> Mind you, this kind of assurance from a native speaker doesn't apply if
> you can actually hear a difference or find a test that demonstrates that
> the speakers themselves hear one they aren't aware of.  For example,
> record several tokens of each, shuffle them into a known order, and see if
> people can usually distinguish 'He's standing' from 'It's raining'.  Even
> if it's proverbial that it's hard to tell, and a source of humor, etc.,
> there might be a difference.
>
> For example, my understanding is that American English speakers have
> trouble hearing some vowel contrasts.  I think cot : caught is notorious
> in this regard.  Some folks contrast the pair, some don't and some do, but
> think they don't.  Some don't but think they do.  I think there is
> instrumental evidence that some people who think there is no contrast make
> one.
>
> Apart from this, two similar forms might differ in some intonational
> contexts, but not in others.  For example, they might sound the same in
> isolation, but behave differently following a particular preceding forms,
> etc.
>
> Anyway, I couldn't hear one myself in this case, apart from the first
> being overall higher than the second in the example - presumably due to
> downstepping in a phrase - but I don't entirely trust my ear with it, so
> that Rory's report of a subtle difference didn't strike me as at all
> implausible.  In isolation the two forms certainly sounded the same to me.
>
> Isn't there a 'hair' form that falls into this homophonous set, too, in
> OP but not in the rest of Dhegiha?
>