'town'

[David Costa]

Probably not. The Proto-Algonquian form is reconstructible as */o:te:weni/,
a nominalization off an initial */o:te:-/. */-o:te:-/ can be reconstructed
as meaning 'to dwell together as a group', and the same morpheme can be seen
in Ojibwe /nindoodem/ 'my totem'. The morpheme seems too deeply embedded
across Algonquian to be a loan.

So either it's a coincidence or Siouan borrowed it from Algonquian.

Dave


----------
>From: mmccaffe at indiana.edu
>To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
>Subject: RE: Tomahittan?
>Date: Wed, Nov 9, 2005, 3:10 am
>

> 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!).")
>>
>>
>> Alfred
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>