Tomahittan?

[Rory M Larson]

> Dear Rory,
>            That cluster is one of the few places where Lakota and Dakota
> diverge sharply.  In Lakota it's "gl" but in Dakota it's "hd".  One
> frequent place where it shows up is as you said -- for the possessive
> forms of y- stem verbs.
>
>            David

Thanks, David!  That's an excellent example of phonological variance in
that cluster.

So if we have:

PSi:  *kire'     *kiraN'     *kiriN'      *kiri'

we should get:

OP:    gdhe       gdhaN       gdhiN        gdhi

La:    gle        glaN        gliN         gli

Da:    hde        hdaN        hdiN         hdi

A hypothetical set intermediate between Proto-Siouan and Dakota might be:

??:   *hide'     *hidaN'     *hidiN'      *hidi'

Or with a bit of de-voicing:

??:   *hite'     *hitaN'     *hitiN'      *hiti'

The word for 'town' in OP is something like ttaN'waNgdhaN.  The ttaN'waN
part of that is the root word for 'town', and seems to be used separately
in naming specific towns.  I've never been too sure what the gdhaN is
about.  My best guess has been that it indicates something inanimate
fitting or sitting in a certain area.  I'm don't know whether any other
Siouan languages use an equivalent with the basic 'town' root.

This Tomahitan name is tempting, though.  The "toma" has already been
suggested as meaning 'town', and could easily be an English orthographical
attempt at *htaN'waN or *htaN'maN, or some such.  The hitaN looks like a
reasonable reflex of *kiraN', which would give gdhaN in OP.  It would be
nice to know how the name was originally accented, though.

If the name is Siouan, I suppose Southeastern would be the likeliest guess,
followed by Dhegihan, Chiwere, and Unattested, in about that order.
Perhaps Bob can fill us in on how that cluster works in Southeastern?

Thanks,
Rory


> I've discussed Tomahitan with Ives and neither of us has an etymology for
it.  The H is in the way of considering it Siouan "Big Town".  Toma also
passes for Choctaw 'town', but hitan doesn't ring any Muskogean bells with
me.  Nobody really knows who these folks were.

>Bob