Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives

[David Kaufman]

Hi Justin,

The mystery may perhaps be solved here.  I looked at Quintero's Osage
Dictionary and she has aakxa 'they say, they were saying' as a "postverbal
singular or plural marker of reported information deriving from person(s)
who is/are present and not moving" < ee 'say' + akxa 'CONT' (p. 3), and she
has aapa as 'they say, are saying' indicating that "information in the
sentence is or was reported by another or others" <  ee 'say' + apa 'CONT'
(p. 4).

If this same is the case in Kaw, then it appears we may be dealing with two
homographs as written, but would actually vary by length: aabá (ee + abá)
'said (moving)' and aakhá (ee + akhá) 'said (stationary)'.

Dave

David Kaufman
Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
Director, Kaw Nation Language Program


On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Mcbride, Justin <
jtmcbri at ostatemail.okstate.edu> wrote:

> For what it's worth, I believe that what appears to be a second token of
> aba in the example, aba-daN is actually a different type altogether. In
> this case, I think it's a case of the verb e(e), 'to say', plus the -(a)be
> completive aspect marker plus the conjunction -(a)daN, 'and'
> [e(e)-(a)be-(a)daN > aba-daN]. If so, then, that one really is just 's/he
> said and,' and the first one is actually the subject marker. But that's not
> to say that there aren't other examples of the quotative use of subject
> markers in Ks, even within the same text. Here's an example of quotative
> akHa:
>
> iccikkitaNga akha oo aNs^i waali miNkHe akHa.
> The Old Man said, "Oh, I'm getting fat."
>
> This case is much clearer to my way of thinking because there are two
> verbal auxiliaries marking the same state (in this case, at rest)
> back-to-back, one of which refers to 1st person (miNkHe, part of the
> quotation), and one 3rd person (akHa, marks quotation). It's curious to
> note that in the audio for this, the speaker laughs after miNkHe and then
> almost catches her breath before saying akHa, which would indicate to me
> that she felt it was essential for concluding the sentence. It's
> interesting to me in that it seems that the entire quoted clause is acting
> almost like a verb following the canonical pattern (subject) SUBJ (verb)
> AUX, where SUBJ and AUX match shape in the continuative aspect, as in
> s^idoz^iNga akHa ghaage akHa, 'the boy is crying.'
>
> -jtm
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 1:50 PM, Rory Larson <rlarson1 at unl.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Dave,
>>
>>
>>
>> In Omaha and Ponca, the corresponding article is amá, where you have
>> abá.  As with Kaw, it tends to imply 'moving/absent'.  But we also have
>> another particle, apparently pronounced the same way, coming at the end of
>> the sentence, that implies that the foregoing is hearsay rather than solid
>> fact.  It can stand by itself, or it can be coupled with the 'allegedly'
>> particle bi to make the common ending for 3rd person hearsay action,
>> biama.
>>
>>
>>
>> I notice the accent changes to the first syllable in the second case of
>> your example.  I wonder if that could be underlyingly a-aba in that case?
>> The first would be the ablauted version of 'he said it', followed by either
>> the Old Man's article abá or a 'hearsay' particle as in OP.  One problem
>> with that would be that the 'hearsay' amá in OP shouldn't cause a preceding
>> verb to ablaut.
>>
>>
>>
>> My $0.02.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Rory
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] *On Behalf
>> Of *David Kaufman
>> *Sent:* Thursday, February 20, 2014 1:30 PM
>> *To:* SIOUAN at LISTSERV.UNL.EDU
>> *Subject:* Question re: Dhegiha and other Siouan quotatives
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> I have a question re: a curious structure in Kaw, and whether anything
>> like it occurs in other Dhegihan or even non-Dhegihan Siouan languages.
>>  The structure involves the articles akhá and abá, used for subjects in Kaw
>> and usually translated 'the', the first being roughly for
>> 'standing/sitting' and the other for 'moving/absent'.  However, in Kaw,
>> these subject articles also somehow seem to have become used as quotatives,
>> or 's/he said.'  Here is an example sentence with gloss:
>>
>>
>>
>> *Icíkitanga  abá, "Anyáxtaga-édan," ába-dan,  nanstábe.*
>>
>> Old.Man   said   bite.me-then          said-then   kicked.him
>>
>> The Old Man said, "Then bite me," and he kicked him.
>>
>>
>>
>> So abá, which is normally used for 'moving' subjects and is usually
>> translated 'the', is now being used for 's/he said.'
>>
>>
>>
>> Any thoughts on this, esp. from other Dhegihan perspectives, or other
>> Siouan languages that might have some similar usage?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   David Kaufman
>>
>> Linguistic Anthropology PhD candidate, University of Kansas
>>
>> Director, Kaw Nation Language Program
>>
>
>
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