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<p><tt>> OM sikka 'chicken' (but ziziga 'turkey')<br>
> LA ziNtka 'bird' (but zic^a 'partridge')<br>
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> OM siNga 'squirrel'<br>
> LA zic^a 'squirrel'<br>
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<tt>After sending out that last message, I took another look at those sets. There isn't really any consistent difference between a squirrel and a largish bird, is there?</tt><br>
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<tt>By the 'bird' set, we'd have to allow a variably pronounced term *[s/z]i[N][t/?], followed, perhaps, by an animate classifier *-ka. The 'squirrel' set fits into the same range. In Lakhota, 'squirrel' and 'partridge' even seem to be pronounced the same.</tt><br>
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<tt>I wonder if the semantics, at one time, could have ranged to a disparaging "small prey animal, obtainable with a bow and arrow in the woods in winter"? Even if there were originally separate words that sounded similar, say, ziNt- 'bird' vs. si 'squirrel', a semantic and phonetic convergence like that could account for all that scrambling.</tt><br>
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<tt>Rory</tt><br>
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