Biloxi nominal markers

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Wed Mar 7 04:30:32 UTC 2007


On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Rory M Larson wrote:
> For nouns, we seem to have a generic deictic e which, at least in OP, can
> be placed after a noun to sort of sum up the previous noun phrase for
> clarity of feeding into the following verb, in the manner of: "My friend's
> older brother HE shot a deer".

Could you provide the example?  I'm guessing this is the focus marker -e.

> For verbs, I've been thinking for some time that there is an old
> declarative e that pops up now and then in OP and other Siouan languages
> I've looked at, and which, in conjunction with a preceding -a, might be
> responsible for Winnebago -ire and OP -i.

I bewlive -e occurs after verbs, too, in Biloxi, when it is the clause is
focussed.  I still see the plural markers as something else, even when
they mark proximate singulars.

> So how about Biloxi -di following verbs as originally a declarative, and
> -di following a noun as an emphatic summarization of the noun?

Or, if it followed a verb where a declarative wasn't appropriate, then it
could be a nominalizer or clause final focus marker.

Apart from our perennial divergence on *=pi we seem to be on the same
page!



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