Tomahittan?

[Michael McCafferty]

Please excuse the fog, but is Potawatomi /odan/ and the like in Algonquian a 
borrowing from Siouan?

Towns were historically, its seems, a southern phenomenon.

Michael

Quoting "\"Alfred W. Tüting\"" <ti at fa-kuan.muc.de>:

> > 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. <<
> 
> 
> Since 'town' is _otunwahe_ [otxuN'wahe] in Lakota (B. gives it in a 
> somewhat more etymological sense as "a cluster of houses, a village, a 
> town...") I'd also regard the idea of _gdhaN_ indicating smth like 
> 'sitting', 'standing' of inanimates not too farfetched: this is _haN/he_ 
> in Lakota.
> 
> (Cf. the sentence in the CULP materials: "he otuwahe kin el tuktel 
> owotetipi wanzi han (sic!) he? - Kal wiglioinazin kin hel isakib wanzi 
> he (sic!).")
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> Alfred
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