Siouan-Catawban reduplication - a bunch of questions...

[cstelfer at ucalgary.ca]

John Koontz wrote:
>
> I think it would be safe to say that reduplication occurs in all Siouan
> languages (or maybe all languages?), though the form, extent of       
 > productivity, and function varies.

One language that does not seem to have any type of reduplication is
Blackfoot.  This is probably due to the fact that Blackfoot has a small
phoneme inventory and fairly long morphemes.  Reduplication would just
create confusion.

This subject does have a small connection to Siouan reduplication. Shaw
(1980) includes the word siksika 'the Blackfoot people' in her section on
Dakota reduplication, but she could not find a root word sika.  As far as
I can tell, this is because siksika is a borrowed word, and is not a
result of reduplication, even though it looks identical to reduplicated
forms.  Siksika is the term that the Blackfoot people use to refer to
themselves.  Here is a gloss of this word in Blackfoot (as I recall it):

siksi   +  ka
'black' +  'foot'

Just some thoughts,

Corey.