Omaha-Ponca Modal of Obligation (fwd)

[R. Rankin]

> I think Bob suggests that miNkhe, s^niNkhe, dhiNkhe
> may actually be
>
> A1 *w-  iNk=he
> A2 *s^-riNk=he
> A3    *riNk=he

> or something on the order of that with the auxiliary
> *he appended in
> uninflected form, and then with *s^e 'you-AUX'
> attached pleonastically by
> analogy with the other articles.

Yes.  -he seems to represent locative 'be' in Dhegiha
languages, and all of the conjugated articles have it.
The -he portion does not get the 2nd person marker if
it directly follows a consonant, but it always does
following a vowel.

It would be nice if the 1st person were *a-thaN-p-he 'I
the standing one', but it isn't.  However 3 of the 5
Dhegiha dialects lack the -p- allomorph of 1st sg. in
'to say' also, so perhaps it's not so strange.  The
only analysis of /dhathaNs^e/ I really object to is the
one that claims that -s^e is the mid-distance
demonstrative.

So niNkhe is bimorphemic, at least historically,  <
niNk + he.  The root, niNk- is a doublet for the more
prevalent naNk- 'sit'.  It is also found with the /i/
vocalism in Dakotan (see Doug Parks's dialect
classification paper in AL) and, as I recall, possibly
in Winnebago.  Both variants occur in Dhegihan.

Bob