PMV 'coyote' [was RE: coyotes]

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2002 bi1 at soas.ac.uk wrote:
> I was interested to hear about -sic^a for 'small'. Presumably this is
> also the explanantion of mag^aksic^a 'duck'.

I suspect so, though I can think ofa folk explanation or two that would
ignore the k.  The -ksik- (Da ksic^a) 'small' stem shows up here and
there.  Lipkind points out ksik in Winnebago as a sort of diminutive, and
the coyote set I posted seems to have it throughout MV, though in many
cases reduced to -si or -<th>i. It may mean 'slender' or 'gracile' or
something like that instead.

> Maybe mi'c^[h]aksic^a is also the real origin of mayas^lec^a by a
> sporadic sound change.

I'll have to leave that to the Dakotanists.

JEK