Locatives and wa- problems.

[Rankin, Robert L.]

I’m still a bit puzzled by Lakhota chi though.  If first person *wa is actually missing from the portmanteau, why isn’t the outcome the same as we get for second person *yi alone?  And why doesn’t second person undergoer *yi itself go to aspirated /chi/ rather than (I think) ni ?

*y- of the 2nd person was replaced with r in MVS.  There are just relics of the 2nd sg. in y-.

For Dhegiha wi, we apparently get a second *wa after the wi and before the verb when the inflected root starts with a simple stop or *r (non-standard or consonant-type inflection).  That fact had thrown me, since it led me to suppose that the *wa came after the *yi rather than before it.  But I suppose this is just a secondary reanalysis in Dhegiha making for double inflection?

If you like conundra the order of agent and patient in the portmanteaux should keep you busy.  It's true in Kaw also that the I/you prefix, wi- often gets a second 1st sg. prefix on the following verb.  That's just what Dick Carter called "layering".  When one layer becomes unanalyzable to speakers, they just add another.

> Is it only Dhegiha that does this after the portmanteau?

I don't know.  Dakotanists??

Bob

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