a phonetic mystery

[ROOD DAVID S]

Dear Bob and everyone else,
	I would like confirmation of the following from others who listen
to Lakhota, but I hear a contrast between mni 'water', with an oral vowel,
and mniN kte 'I will go' with a nasal "i".  If that's the case, isn't
there a problem with deriving the m-n of 'water' from *w-r+nasal?  I still
think we have been far too sloppy in our listening to Lak. vowels after
nasal consonants, but it would take a dedicated study to straighten it
out, preferably one that uses instrumental phonetics and a variety of
speakers from different places and age groups.  Until we do this, however,
I think all our *w & *r reconstructions are suspect.
	DAvid


David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
Campus Box 295
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu