inclusive/exclusive

BARudes at aol.com BARudes at aol.com
Mon Dec 12 03:33:17 UTC 2005


Dave,

The short answer is "yes", there has been more research on the relationship 
of the Yuchi language to the Siouan languages that you are probably not aware 
of. I gave a paper back in the 1980s pointing out a fair number of lexical 
pairs among Yuchi, Catawba, and Proto-Siouan that appeared to be cognate. More 
recently, Bob has done research that demonstrates what appear to be cognate 
pronominal elements and a system of classificatory prefixes on nouns among Yuchi, 
Catawba, and Proto-Siouan. Bob may have done additional research that I am not 
aware of. The evidence taken together increases the probability that Yuchi, 
Catawba, and Proto-Siouan are genetically related. Whether the combined weight 
of the evidence is sufficient to "confirm" the relationship is still a matter 
of debate for some.

I should note, however, that even if the relationship is taken as 
"confirmed", it is not appropriate to say that Yuchi is a Siouan language. Proto-Catawban 
(the ancestor of modern Catawba, the Woccon language, and perhaps other 
extinct languages of the Carolinas) and Proto-Siouan descend from coordinate 
off-shoots of a language that I refer to as Proto-Siouan-Catawban. Where Yuchi fits 
in is uncertain. Based on such morphological features as the absence of 
instrumental prefixes in Yuchi versus their presence in Catawba and Siouan, I would 
specualte that Proto-Siouan-Catawban and Pre-Yuchi were coordinate offshoots 
of a still older language that, for lack of a better term at the moment, could 
be called Proto-Siouan-Catawban-Yuchi.

Blair  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/siouan/attachments/20051211/bb60a046/attachment.htm>


More information about the Siouan mailing list