Funny W

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 BARudes at aol.com wrote:
> I share with Bob a mistrust of abstract solutions to problems in  historical
> phonology; I would have been one of those skeptical folks who did not believe
> Saussure’s solution to Indo-European vocalic alternations until the
> discovery of the supporting Hittite data.

Blair, I know you're not that old!

> I would be happy to provide the (presumed) cognates in the Esaw and
> Saraw dialects of Catawba, as well as Woccon, for the roots that show *R and *W
> in Siouan if someone (Bob ?, John ?) would send me a complete list of such
> roots.

I can produce a few off the top of my head, thinking really in terms of
Proto-Mississippi Valley.  I'm not fully convinced *R and *W are
distinctive in Siouan proper as a whole.

Actually, anyone with an Omaha vocabulary source can produce the list
using words that start with m or n followed by an oral vowel for *W and
*R (where there is no bl- cognate for the *R form in Dakotan).

Or any word that starts with d (recently usually written t) in Winnebago,
for *R only.

Or most b-words in Santee for *W, and most words with root-initial l ~ d ~
n in Dakotan for *R.

*Wa= 'by cuting' (outer instrumental)
*Wa 'snow'
*We 'spring' (the season)
*Wi 'sun, moon'  (occasionally nasal, e.g., in Dhegiha)
*Wo= 'by shooting' (outer instrumental)
*Wo 'blackhaw' (? I need to verify this one)

I think there's a 'boat' word in the *W's.

*Ra= 'by heat, spontaneously' (outer instrumental)
*Ra-ka 'to consider to be' (source of Dakotan diminutive?)
*Re 'this'  (sometimes *re)
*Rek- 'mother's brother'
*ReS- 'urine ~ urinate' (S = s ~ s^ ~ x)

I think one of the usual Dhegiha clans, interpreted as 'ice' in Ponca is
*Ruxe referring to some subtype of buffalo.

Unfortunately, most of the easily remember n- examples in Omaha-Ponca are
from *pr, e.g., nu 'man, male', nu 'potato', ne 'lake' (not the usual word
in Omaha).  Ditto for d-words in Winnebago, e.g., dok, do, de.

> Based on the few such roots I am familiar with, I suspect that *R and *W
> are internal Siouan developments that post-date the split of Siouan and
> Catawban, and I do not think the conditioning factors will be apparent
> from the Catawba data.

This is why I tend to speculate about allophony.

Incidentally, I don't mean anything like #mb or #nd with fully syllabic
nasals, except (?) in Santee md for Teton bl.  I gather nobody hears
anything but bd today.