<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV>Hi,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm currently working on an article regarding the "verby" aspect of many Native American languages vs. the "nouny" aspect of Indo-European languages. I know Hidatsa, for instance, has a grammatical construct which essentially makes any noun into a verb by adding a sentence final <EM><FONT color=#ff0000>-c</FONT></EM>, which is also a sentence-final marker. Thus, I think the word <EM><FONT color=#ff0000>wacawiri </FONT></EM>"bowl" can become <EM><FONT color=#ff0000>wacawiric</FONT></EM>, which, as best I can tell, would literally mean something like "It is bowl-ing." Also, the sentence "(the) man is tall" seems to be rendered <EM><FONT color=#ff0000>wace wahkuc</FONT>, </EM>which literally seems to mean "(the) man talls"!<EM> </EM><FONT color=#0033ff>(John B.--please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, since you're the Hidatsa expert!)</FONT> I'm wondering if other Siouan languages and even non-Siouan languages might have similar grammatical constructs where an English noun or adjective actually becomes a verb form in the Native American language.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any info will be appreciated! Thanks, and <STRONG><FONT color=#66cc66>Happy </FONT><FONT color=#ff0000>Holidays</FONT></STRONG>!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Dave Kaufman</DIV> <DIV><A href="mailto:dvklinguist@hotmail.com">dvklinguist@hotmail.com</A><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>