JOD orthographic oddity

[Rankin, Robert L]

Everybody is partly right.  I suspect the symbol is probably a tilde, given that he also wrote it with an Osage subscript tilde in the identical entry in Kansa as per Linda's observation.  But the subscript tilde signifies *lowering* rather than fronting.  As Catherine points out, he uses a regular Umlaut for fronting.  It has to be lowering because the reflexes of Proto-Siouan *o never front.  In Dhegiha they always raise to "u" in Dorsey's transcription.  He used the "u" symbol in Quapaw, Osage and Kaw also even though it is generally [o] in those languages except next to velars, where you do hear [u].  The Osage symbol he's using (assuming it's a sub-posed tilde) would signal an open or lowered "u", as in 'pull' or 'put'.  If you wanted to "normalize" it, you could use whatever symbol you're using for the phoneme that represents the o~u sound (local reflexes of *o).  I use /o/ in KS, OS and QU.  John Koontz sticks to /u/ in OM and PO.  [u] and [o] do not contrast in any Dhegiha language; both come from *o.

The umlauted u" only develops in Kaw and Osage from Proto-Siouan *u (never *o).  This development also took place in Omaha, Ponca and Quapaw, but the front rounded vowel unrounded to [i] everywhere in all three languages (and sporadically in Kaw and Osage).  

Best,

Bob

________________________________________
From: owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU [owner-siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU] on behalf of Catherine Rudin [CaRudin1 at wsc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 12:47 PM
To: siouan at lists.Colorado.EDU
Subject: Re: JOD orthographic oddity

Dorsey does indeed know where an umlaut belongs :-)  He uses umlaut over u pretty often, and it's clear it indicates a front rounded vowel.  He uses (clearly written) tilde both above and below u, and I'm not sure what it indicates.  I've not seen what looks like an umlaut below a letter except in this example.  If it IS "poorly scribed tilde" (or one that got partly erased or something) what sound would that mean?
Catherine

>>> "Cumberland,  Linda A" <lcumberl at indiana.edu> 5/3/2011 12:32 PM >>>
Mark and Catherine,

The Dorsey slip for the Kaw word that corresponds to the example you
sent is "du", with no marking under the vowel. In that entry he also
gives cross-references to dule and du-ska, also with no diacritic above
or below the u. (the contemporary form is fully rounded "do"). However,
the Os. example at the bottom of the slip is "tu" with an x under the
't' and a perfectly clear tilde under the 'u'. Since your mystery
diacritic occurs in a Kaw reference, and our slip for that word has no
marking under the Kaw word but a tilde under the OS word, I'd guess
that you are dealing with a tilde which, as Brian notes, probably
indicates the fronting of u in Osage and Kanza. I'd be surprised if
Dorsey didn't know where to place an umlaut, so my money's on a "poorly
scribed tilde".

Linda

Quoting Mark J Awakuni-Swetland <mawakuni-swetland2 at unlnotes.unl.edu>:

> http://omahalanguage.unl.edu/dictionary_images/nu/opd.03.005.09c.jpg
>
>
> Aloha All,
>
> Catherine located another Dorsey orthographic oddity. The image link is
> above.
>
> Can anyone interpret the diacritic under the /u/ in the cognates?
>
> It appears to have two under dots.
>
> There are two samples of it.
>
> Catherine reported finding a /u/ with what appears to be an under tilde
> elsewhere.
>
> We are unsure if the two under dots are just a poorly scribed tilde.
>
> Suggestions?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Mark
>
>
> Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Anthropology & Ethnic Studies
> Native American Studies Program Liaison
> University of Nebraska
> Department of Anthropology
> 841 Oldfather Hall
> Lincoln, NE 68588-0368
>
> http://omahalanguage.unl.edu
> http://omahaponca.unl.edu
> Phone 402-472-3455
> FAX: 402-472-9642