Town; Clan (Re: Tomahittan?)

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, J.E. Koontz wrote:
> I think the independent Dakotan form is othuNwaNhe 'town', as in
> Mniluzaha othuNwaHe 'Rapid City'.

My error - othuNwahe (*not* *uthuNwaNhe, let alone *othuNwaHe), as Alfred
Tueting points out.  Very likely the -he part is a standing positional,
too, as he also observes.  I think Dakota haN/he is from PSi *thaN/*the,
and so the -he here is cognate with OP the in my suggestion than gdhaN
being from dhaN and dhaN/g-dhaN being parallel with the/g-dhe 'stand' and
*he/k-he 'lie', although the morphonophonemics of the stems differs
markedly.  The hypothetical *he 'lie' form doesn't match Dakota he even
though it has the same shape.

The from -thuNwa- before -he in othuNwahe may suggest that the final nasal
in thuNwaN is by nasal spreading from the initial uN through the w.
(Compare tuNwaN ~ tuNwe 'see', if I remember the form correctly, which is
asking a lot these days.)  However, Dhegiha ttaNwaN- also shows the
spreading.