POTENTIAL SPAM: Re: Omaha fricative set

[Rory M Larson]

Thanks, Jimm!  I should think that would explain the La Flesche family's
tendency toward interdentalization of /s/ and /z/.

Rory




                                                                           
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             09/28/2006 08:56          Re: Omaha fricative set             
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Rory:
Mary Gale LaFlesche, mother of Francis LaF, was raised primarily by her
Ioway-Otoe mother, ÑiGunaMi, who kept regular contact with both village
groups.  As such, her first language was IO, and there is no information as
to which dialect dominated Mary's or her mother's speech.  However, in as
much as Mary's grandfather was Ioway Leader ("chief") WajinWasje) and her
Otoe grandmother, Thunder Eagle Woman, in turn she was the daughter of an
Otoe Leader  ("chief") and an Omaha mother.  The grandparents lived in the
area of Bellevue, NE.  Mary's father, Dr. Gale, an Army surgeon played no
role in her life.

IO political and social mores of the day would suggest that Mary's and her
Mother's speech would tend towards Ioway in dialect.  When she was about
pre-adolescence or earlier, her step-father, a French (speaking) Fur
trader, Peter Sarpy (a not very French sounding name) with the American Fur
Company sent Mary to a Saint Louis French school where she learned to speak
French.  No doubt, Mary had gained some familiarity with Omaha from the
activity of the Trading Post.  However, when she married Joseph LaFlesche,
who was equally bilingual in Omaha and French, Omaha became her dominant
language, and the first language of all her children.  Neither Mary nor
Joseph spoke or understood English.
Perhaps the above will provide some insight on possible language influence
of Mary on her son Francis's Omaha speech patterns reflected in his written
works.
Jimm
 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Rory M Larson
 To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
 Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:09 PM
 Subject: Re: Omaha fricative set



 John Koontz wrote:


 > I'm pretty sure that something like an extreme laminality or apicality
 > explains the LaFlesche use of c-cedilla for s, and failing a convenient
 > coresponding voiced symbol he used the same for z, too.  He prized his
 > pronunciation of s/z and used symbols to insist on it.  Dorsey mentions
 > that members of the LaFlesche family had what ammounted to a lisp.

 Wasn't a mother or grandmother of that family an Otoe?

 Rory

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