additions to Woccon article

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Sun Feb 3 02:49:24 UTC 2002


On Sat, 2 Feb 2002 BARudes at aol.com wrote:

> Additions to Appendix 4 of "Resurrecting Coastal Catawban"
>
> 1. Proto-Siouan *wi'huN:te (?) 'black bear' (Rankin 1998) [Bob R. reports he
> would reconstruct *wi'hu:te ~ *wi'huN:te, and that the word is perhaps a
> borrowing]
>
> 2. Proto-Siouan *'wati 'boat, canoe' (Carter 1980:77) [John K. reports that
> the reconstruction in the Comparative Siouan Dictionary is *Wa:'te (?) 'boat']

Note that *w is not the same as *W, as *r is not *R, but until recently
Siouanists were not always clear on the distinction, and that -i vs. -e
reflects some indecision across time and persons among Siouanists as to
how to reconstrict the same thing.  So in essence, the sources agree and
the differences are in detail.

> 3. Proto-Siouan *wi'htoxka 'fox' (Rankin 1998)
>
> 4. Proto-Siouan *pha 'head' (Matthews 1958) [Bob R. reports that he would
> reconstruct *a'hpa 'head']

Yes, this is ppa in Dhegiha, and tense stops (also written as phonetically
preaspirates in, say, Osage) when they pair with Dakota aspiration and
Chiwere aspiration imply *hC.

> 5. Lakota mi, mila 'knife' (Carter 1980:77) [John K. reports that the
> reconstruction in the Comparative Siouan Dictionary is *waN'hiN 'blade']

In which the mi- would be, perhaps *w(a) + the final *iN, the first part
of the cited reconstruction being probably *waN'h(e) 'flint'.

> 6. Proto-Siouan *i'hkuN: 'grandmother' (Rankin, Carter and Jones 1997)
>
> 7. Proto-Siouan *wi'htaN 'wildcat' (Rankin 1998)
>
> 8. Proto-Siouan *hu 'tree, trunk, stalk' (Carter 1980:77)

Unchanged in modern assessment, if we leave aside the vexed question of
the organic (?) or epenthetic (?) -r- in Mandan before the final particle
(Kennard says article)  -e there (cf. -di in some forms in Biloxi, though
I don't recall if this one has that in Biloxi.

> 9. Proto-Siouan *wi'he(-ka) 'raccoon' (Rankin 1998)
>
> 10. Proto-Siouan *'ruti 'red' (Matthews 1958) [John K. reports that the
> reconstruction in the Comparative Siouan Dictionary is *as^u'te 'red']

The *r is an attempt to deal with the Dakotan for luta, which involves
contamination by (or replacement by) *rut(e) 'ripe, cooked'.



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