ASB puza

[David Costa]

> A couple of questions here: Could we get an expansion of the acronyms BF and
> PC for those of us who are Algonquian-challenged? Also, without
> presuppositions about which way borrowing is supposed to have gone, are BF
> poos, PC poosii- and Penobscot p at so (@ = schwa) reasonable reflexes of
> Proto-Algonquian?

I think 'BF' is Blackfoot; I'm not sure what 'PC' is supposed to stand for;
among Algonquianists, it usually stands for 'Plains Cree', but the Plains
Cree form for 'cat' is /pisiw/ (unless it also borrowed the English word).
The Cree form and Penobscot /p at so/ are both regular from Proto-Algonquian
*/pe$iwa/ ('$' = s-hacek). I think the historical development of Blackfoot
from Proto-Algonquian is too ill-understood to be sure whether 'poos' could
come from */pe$iwa/. At least, *I* don't know for sure.

Incidentally, some Algonquian languages of New England also seem to have
European loans for 'cat':

Pequot <popose>
Mohegan <bopoose>
Massachusett <poopohs> & plural <poohpoohsuog>
Nipmuck <p8sp8s>

The Mohegan-Pequot and Massachusett forms, at least, seem to be phonemic
/po:hpo:hs/.

Dave