argument structure k'u etc.

[Bruce Ingham]

On 4/4/05 8:29 pm, "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu> wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Apr 2005, Jan F. Ullrich wrote:
>>> (1)        w-o-'uN-k'u-pi    'they fed us (gave us things)'
>>
>> I have been under the assumtion that wo in these compounds is
>> a contraction of wo'yute 'food'
>> (wo'yute k?u' -> wo'k?u).
>
> Is there a precedent for such extreme reductions?
>
>
>
Sorry I've been out of the loop for a while, I hope these remarks have not
laready been made.

Surely if it was the indefinite, it would be wa- not wo-.  It does occur  in
a number of other examples, where it looks as though it might be from woyute
as in s^ungwok'u 'give food to horses', wocin 'ask for food', woai 'bring
food to', but also occurs as wol- (with presuambly the -t- of wota 'eat
things' becoming an -l as in wolkagli 'bring food to'.
Bruce