Borrowings.

[Sky Campbell]

About a year ago, I had a member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe tell me a word
for nine that is different than the usual "sanke."  I can't remember what it
was but I have it somewhere in my office.  I'll try to find it tomorrow.
This talk about Siouan borrowing this term from Algonquian or vice versa has
me very curious about that alternate term for nine.  Maybe it'll shed some
light here.

 

Sky

 

From: Siouan Linguistics [mailto:SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] On Behalf Of
Rankin, Robert L.
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 8:59 PM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Re: Borrowings.

 

> As I mentioned before, this "shankka" number for "nine" is also around in
Algonquian. The word can be reconstructed as Proto-Algonquian *ša.nka, but
there are lots of problems: the etymon is completely missing from all of
Eastern Algonquian, Miami-Illinois and Blackfoot; the Cree and Menominee
forms don't have the proper reflexes for those languages and look like
they're all borrowed from Ojibwe; and the Shawnee and Cheyenne forms
inexplicably look like they derive from Proto-Algonquian *ča.nka, not
*ša.nka. If it's a loan into Algonquian, it was borrowed early on, but after
Algonquian had already started to separate out into dialects.

Missing from Miami/Illinois is troubling, since they seem to be the bunch
most in contact with Kaw, Osage and Quapaw and probably all of Dhegiha.  

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