Kaw and Osage 'rain', 'stand' and 'boy'

[R. Rankin]

Carolyn writes:
> In Osage, 'to stand' has a long nasal a:N.  'To rain', on the other hand, is
either ni'z^u or nu'z^u, where the first syllable vowel is not long, or at least
is not so long as the a:N in 'to stand'. I don't write 'rain' with a long vowel.

Ditto in Kansa.

naaNz^iN'    'stand'  (1st syll. long, second accented)

nuz^u'    'rain'  (1st syll short, second accented, /u/ is a front-rounded V as
in French)

'Boy' would be dissimilar in any event since we don't have the exact equivalent,
morph for morph.  Omaha nu would be Kaw do- 'male', and 'little' would, of
course, be z^iNga if it is a full-fledged stative verb (or adjective if you
like).  It would be reduced to hiNnga, where ng is just a velar nasal, if the
last part of the compound is just a diminutive marker.  Dorsey didn't make this
last distinction, but Mrs. Rowe always did.

So Kaw and Osage have no homonyms among these three.

Bob