=be Plural/Proximate in Kaw; =pe Plural/Proximate in Osage
Koontz John E
John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Wed May 31 00:24:14 UTC 2006
And, for that matter, =we in Quapaw.
I have been thinking of these forms, which alternate with =bi, =pi, and
=wi, respectively, as fusions of the latter with =e, i.e., =be < =b(i)=e,
etc. And I have been thinking of =e as a feminine declarative. But I'm
not sure, after going back through Carolyn's Osage grammar comments. I
thought I remembered some unaccounted for forms with =pa from back when CQ
was still writing. But I don't see them now. Looks like everything
can be accounted for as =pa or =apa among the positionals (like OP =ma or
=ama).
Just to clarify my original thinking, I knew that Carolyn worked directly
mostly with female speakers of Osage, and that it was the same for Bob in
Kaw. Given that, and given that Omaha-Ponca of the 1870s and 1880s has
final -a in male illocutionary particles and final -e in female ones, I
thought I saw a pattern. Examples - the OP declaratives in Dorsey's OP
work are /ha/ (male) and /he/ (female). At present the male form is hau,
and the female form is uncertain, though I have one weak attesation of ha.
Another possible problem with my initial impression. I have found some
examples quoted in the LaFlesche Dictionary that
suggest =pi au for the male declarative. I suppose that might be a sort
of hyper-correction or conservative version of =p=au, which might be the
same as =p=a. Omaha switches to -au in the final of male illocutionary
particles in the course of the 1890s or so. Dorsey has some examples of
this, and LaFlesche is fairly consistent in writing -o (i.e., au). I'm
not sure
why -a > -au should have occurred in both OP and Osage about this time.
Maybe fashions in writing the final vowel are what really changed?
So, is =(dh)e DECLARATIVE definitely not linked to a particular speaker
sex? Is Osage =pe still considered most likely to be =pe < =pi + (dh)e?
How about Kaw =be and Quapaw =we?
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