Mandan

[Rory M Larson]

Alright, since John has removed OP from the list of polite topics for this
forum, I've decided to learn Mandan instead.  :)  I'm looking at an old
article by Edward Kennard in the International Journal of American
Linguistics, Volume 9, Number 1, called "Mandan Grammar".  I've found some
points of interest to me, and I wonder if the comparativists would care to
comment on my tenuous understandings, presented below.

1. The stop series is reduced to simple p, t, k, and ?.  All distinctions
based on pre- or post-aspiration or glottalization have merged together for
p, t, and k.  The resulting sounds are voiceless and somewhat aspirated.

2. The fricatives s, s^, x, and h are all voiceless.  If there was ever a
separate z, z^, g^ series, these have merged with the voiceless forms.

3. There are two very similar phonemes which occur in three phonetic forms.
Both are r in intervocalic position unless the preceding consonant is a
nasal, in which case both are n.  The two phonemes are distinct only in
initial position, where one is n and the other is a nasal d, like the sound
at the end of English "hand".  I assume that one of these is Siouan *r and
the other is Siouan *y.  But surprisingly, the 'hand' instrumental prefix
is du-, while the 'mouth' instrumental is na-, which cuts across what I am
familiar with in MVS, such as Dakotan yu-, ya-, and OP dhi-, dha-, which I
had thought went back to Siouan *ru-, *ra-.  Can anyone explain what is
going on here?  And which is which with Mandan d and n, if that's even the
correct question?

4. The only other Mandan consonants are w and m.  I don't know if either of
these is the result of multiple Siouan phonemes collapsing together.

5. Mandan has 10 vowels, 7 oral and 3 nasal:  a, E, e, i, u, o, A, and aN,
iN, uN.  The word for 'buffalo' is ptiN, which I suppose is cognate with
MVS *pte.  Are there any known regular vowel shifts between Mandan and MVS?

6. The causative suffix in Mandan is -hErE, or perhaps we should say -h.rE,
where the period indicates a weak vowel that regularly adopts the value of
the one following it.  Thus, if -hErE is raised to /a/ grade ablaut, it
becomes -hara.  This sort of thing seems to happen commonly in Winnebago
where we have what would be a consonant cluster in Dakotan or Dhegihan.  At
any rate, the h preceding the r seems to answer my long-standing puzzlement
over why the causative alone in Lakhota and OP does not do the bl-, bdh-
thing when inflected for person.

7. Mandan uses two augments for plurality: nit for 2nd person and kErE for
3rd person.  Of these, nit causes preceding -E to ablaut to -a, but kErE
does not.  Neither of these looks much like MVS *pi, or like ire, i, or E
either.

8. The 'we' affixed pronoun is nu (nuN ?), as Bob pointed out recently.

9. The more assertive demand particles are gendered in their usage, as in
other Siouan languages.  Unlike other Siouan languages, however, the gender
is according to the person addressed, rather than according to the speaker!

10. In comparing Mandan with MVS languages that I am more familiar with, I
am amazed at the disparity between different grammatical systems in their
degree of similarity.  Some systems, such as subject pronouns, instrumental
prefixes, locative prefixes, reflexives, the causative, the come, go and
arrive verbs, the conjunction ki and the postposition -ta seem to be almost
identical in form and meaning; while other systems, such as demand
particles, augments, positionals, question words, and all but a handful of
the lexical vocabulary is entirely different.  Do we have a good handle on
where Mandan fits in the Siouan family tree?  I've heard Mandan related
variously with Crow-Hidatsa, Southeastern, and Winnebago.  I'm convinced by
now that it's not MVS, so the last possibility can probably be scratched,
but beyond that I'm not sure.  (I've been assuming that Southeastern and
MVS are closer to each other than either is to Crow-Hidatsa.  Is that
generally accepted?)

Enough ruminations for tonight.  If anybody has any insights, I'd be
delighted to hear them!

Rory