animate wa-

[REGINA PUSTET]

--- "R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu> wrote:
> How might one say "There was a lot of killing in
> the war/slaughter."  ??  I suppose the PP and
> 'many' would be different, but I'd expect to see
> the WA- sentences become grammatical with that
> meaning.

I asked my speaker to translate this. She gave me:

okichize         el  ota  wicha-kte-pi
battle/slaughter in  many 3PL.PAT-kill-PL

The reaction I got when bringing up

okichize el ota wa-kte-pi

as a possible alternative translation was immediate
and vigorous rejection. But I suspect that in other
Siouan languages, wa- or its equivalents might be
acceptable in such contexts. It could be that
functional shifts have taken place across Siouan
regarding wa-.

Regina

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