Language contact

[ivan.ozbolt at ou.edu]

Thank you very much to all of you for your very instructive answers.

I am actually from France, and I would not have guessed the loans from French, except for “Monkapo” (ma capote). I am anxious to see Dr. Carolyn Quintero’s dictionary published.

I am surprised to learn that /ís^padhoN/ is a generic term also including Mexicans and French. La Flesche (1932, p.333) only indicates “Spaniard”, and his dictionary doesn’t have an entry for “French”. 

However, it seems to me that the contacts with French traders were more extensive and extended than with the Spaniard. Even when Louisiana failed under the control of Spain, the Osages continued to interact for the most part with people of French origin. The mixed blood Osages generally spoke French in addition to Osage, until they shifted to English in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Maybe the fact that the mixed bloods and the full bloods were clearly distinct populations can explain the lack of borrowings? In any event, the mixed bloods never “creolized” anything, although they spoke two languages over several generations.

Thank you very much again for your warm welcome, and I will be very glad to participate again to share my findings.

Ivan