*kr (RE: Tomahittan?)

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Tue Dec 20 04:41:33 UTC 2005


This was set aside to complete in Novemember and I am just now returning
to it!

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005, Rory M Larson wrote:
> I'm wondering what OP gdh- looks like in other Siouan languages, especially
> Proto-Siouan and Southeastern?

PCH  *kVr-    (V conditioned, but not the same)
Cr   kVr-
Hi   kVr-

PMa *kr
Ma   kVr / __V   (Vs identical)

PMV *kr

PDa *kR
Sa   hd
Te   gl    [g<schwa>l]
St   hn

PDh *kr
OP   gdh   [g<schwa><edh>]
Os    l  < dl ~ gl
Ks    l
Qu   kd

IO   kr
Wi   kVr/ __V    (Vs identical)

Tu   kVr (grV)

PBO
Bi   kVd, kd
Of   kVd, kt

> I think I understand that words like gdhe, gdhaN, gdhiN, gdhi, etc,
> reflect an original *kire', *kiraN', *kiriN', *kiri', with the initial
> *ki- being a possessive or reflexive 'action with respect to self'
> element.  Is this correct?

This is generally assumed.  However, some observations:

1) *ki is strictly speaking assumed only in forms where *k- is a dative or
suus prefix in alternation with *ki- in other paradigms.

2) But it is deduced for the vertitive *k-, by analogy with the
foregoing cases.

3) It's reasonably clear that many of the essentially automatic and
predictable intrusive Vs in *CR clusters can be seen as secondary in
synchronic or contemporary terms in languages like Winnebago or Mandan or
Crow and Hidatsa, but it may be significant that something like this
epenthesis is found so widely.  And it is dangerous to assume that all
apparently predictable vowels are actually epenthetic.  In some cases they
may be organic, based on comparisons with languages rthat lack epenthesis.

4) In general Siouan contains numerous traces of a reduction of earlier
**(C)VCV forms to *CCV, etc.  In many cases the reduced elements seem to
be grammatical affixes of one kind or another:  personal inflection, verb
derivation markers, noun classifiers, etc.

In a sense, any heavy element in initial position - clusters, aspirates,
pre-aspirates, ejectives, etc., prosthetic vowels in some languages, is
likely to involve some sort of reduction or re-allignment of segments.



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