*y-Stem Verbs (RE: Benefactive Reflexives)

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Wed Nov 17 20:52:33 UTC 2004


On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, ROOD DAVID S wrote:
> both of these examples are of icu, not k'u; that verb takes an unexpected
> extra -k- before the -c- in the suus forms and (apparently) with the
> reflexive, too.
> > Unki'yepi etaN'haN xeya'b ii'c?ikcu.
> > She has taken herself away from us.

(I was also wondering about the ii here.)

Interesting!  This looks like it should be a reflex of a "syncopating" or
"second conjugation" *y-stem *iyu, though I would have expected ic^hu for
the basic stem.  The kc^ cluster occurs in Dakota for stop + *y clusters,
e.g., Da (wi)kc^emna 'ten' vs. OP gdheb(dh)aN 'ten' < PS *kyepraN.  The
*y-stems are pretty scarce and the main one the CSD project is aware of is
*DEM=yE 'to think'.  This has Da first persons like epc^e vs. OP
ebdh(egaN) 'I (kinda) think'.  Actually, Da only has first persons for the
'think' verb, as I understand it.



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