Helmbrecht IJAL Paper: Some Semantic and Etymological Quibbles

[Catherine Rudin/HU/AC/WSC]

John wrote:
>Johannes Helmbrecht (2002:7) says of Winnebago wa- (which is a pretty
standard pan-Mississippi Valley or even pan-Siouan wa-) that it has three
uses:  '(a) it may be translated as 'something' etymologically deriving
from the indefinite pronoun waz^aN 'something', (b) it functions as a
detransitivizer, and (c)  it may it is the third person plural object
pronoun 'them' of transitive verbs.'

Seems to me in all three cases wa- is/replaces an argument, indefinite but
generally identifiable in context  ...   In my sloppy way, in trying to
make sense of Omaha I mentally translate wa- as "stuff" and it just about
always works...   In short, I basically agree with John.
Catherine