Osage 'eight'

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Wed Aug 23 20:36:09 UTC 2006


Quapaw has /bdo'ka/ 'round, circular; whole, entire', as expected.  No *kdopa or *kdoba.  So *bdhoka would be the older form.  You can check and see if it's in the CSD MS -- I think Chiwere has something like /broge/, which would be the proper cognate.  With that accentual pattern it probably has a long vowel = bro:ge.  
 
Bob

________________________________

From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu on behalf of Rory M Larson
Sent: Wed 8/23/2006 2:18 PM
To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: Osage 'eight'



>> In Omaha, this and I believe a few other words seem to do some sound symbolic alternations between bdhVgV and gdhVbV.  So we have bdhu'ga too for 'all', as well as gdhu'ba.  I don't think we've figured out for sure quite what the difference is.  I guess the question would depend on how far back in the Omaha/Dhegihan language lineage a *bro'ka/*gro'pa alternation existed.

> I had never heard of /gruba/, but I'll check Quapaw when I get home.  Kaw doesn't have *loba 'all' unless in that '8' term, and I don't recall ever seeing it in OS, although Carolyn is the one who would know.

Hmm.  Well, maybe it's a peculiarity of (modern?) Omaha.  I thought of another word that does this too, after sending off the last note.  The word for 'paper'/'book' alternates between wabdha'gase and wagdha'base.  Not much hope of that one being very old, I suppose.  Come to think of it, I don't recall the gdhVbV forms existing even in Dorsey.

Rory



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