Historical Explanation for *pi as Plural and Proximate and Nominalizer

[CATCHES VIOLET]

FOR WHAT ITS WORTH:

>Now that she points it out, I agree with Regina that ob seems like it
>might derive from o'phA,

opxa means to be included, or to include one's self in going or doing
something with others, if one is going with others we can say 'ob  ye' or
'opxa' or 'opxa ic'iye'...
opxa and ob mean exactly the same thing, ob is just a short cut...
I try to  help you all in this way, by explaining the Lakxota words when i
can ....

This seems to derive from a more complex
>gloss in Riggs 'to go with, to follow; to pursue, as opa aya [i.e., ophA +
>ayA 'to go' form 'to pursue'];  to go to , attend, as a school or meeting,
>to be present at; to be a member of, as an association or church; to go
>in, as in a canoe ...'.

BE CAREFUL.  THE D DIALECT USES THE TERM A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN THE L
DIALECT.
FOR US IT WOULD SEEM ungrammatical to say 'opa aya' which is pure Dakxota,
to pursue for us would be 'pasi aya pi'  so we would n't say 'opa aya' in
the same way, not to mean the same thing,  because our dialect is more
particular about how things should be said or how words should be used.

pi doesn't fit into the picture here at all with ob or opxa, unless we say
'they' included themselves or 'they' went with someone  'opxa pi' or 'ob
eyayab' or 'ob iyaya pi' but we can't say 'opxa iyaya pi'
I hope all this makes sense

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