Muskogean 9

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Jack Martin wrote:
> As for Tunica:  Haas compared to'hkusa'hku 'nine' to sa'hku 'one' in her
> dictionary, but was apparently doubtful of what to'hku- meant.  Two
> possibilities include to'hku 'to strike ... together' and t-o'hku-sa'hku
> 'the-offspring-one' (which she evidently didn't think of or rejected).  But
> I'm confused about this:  if the word for 'nine' is a "Wanderwort", I don't
> see how it could also be derived from 'one' in Tunica...

Actually, Siouan forms have something more like *kis^aNhka (refer back to
the list in the original post), and I was comparing that to (toh)kusahku.
The only virtue of sahku is in perhaps suggesting that the form tohkusahku
is native.  This would work with a progression from Tunica to Siouan to
Algonquian and Muskogean (and back to Siouan for Biloxi).

JEK