Pejorative vs. Diminutive

[Philip S. LeSourd]

This word, per the online Maliseet-Passamaquoddy Dictionary, is 
motewolonuweku 'he/she has soiled his/her diapers'. This is not a 
pejorative form. It would appear to consist of motewolonuw-, stem of 
motewolon 'person with other-than-human powers' (though why this stem 
is the base I cannot say!) = -ek- 'cloth-like object' + -e- AI final + 
-w (deleted), the third-person independent indicative inflection. 
Recall in all this that o = schwa.

Phil LeSourd

Quoting Ann Morrison Spinney <anuwit at COMCAST.NET>:

> Is the ending -weku on Passamaquoddy "motewolinweku" a pejorative?
>
> Ann Morrison Spinney
>
> On May 7, 2013, at 10:15 PM, Wayne Newell <wnewellits at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>>  Check with Robert Leavitt or better still linguist Philip LeSord
>> (just google them) for Maliseet and Passamaquoddy. We have recently
>> published an 18000 item dictionary. It's on the web but I don't have
>> the link close by. Robert can give it to you. Hope this helps.
>>
>> Wayne Newell
>> Passamaquoddy Tribe
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 8:45 PM, Monica Macaulay <mmacaula at wisc.edu> wrote:
>>> Yup, Potawatomi has both.  But Menominee has diminutive only.
>>>
>>> On May 7, 2013, at 6:29 PM, David Costa <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> All I can contribute to this is that while Miami-Illinois and
>>>> Shawnee of course have diminutives, there is no pejorative in
>>>> either language. Apparently, however, Potawatomi has both. (See
>>>> Charles Hockett, 1948, Potawatomi II: Derivation, Personal
>>>> Prefixes, and Nouns. IJAL 14, especially pages 70-1.)
>>>>
>>>> Dave Costa
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Greetings.  I'm working on a paper concerning diminutives and
>>>>> pejoratives - and in particular comparing Plains Cree (which
>>>>> lacks a distinct pejorative) and Saulteaux (which has one).  This
>>>>> has me wondering about the distribution of these forms across the
>>>>> Algonquian family.  I'm hoping some of you can comment on the
>>>>> distribution of diminutives versus pejoratives in as many
>>>>> Algonquian languages as possible.  In particular, how widespread
>>>>> are diminutive and pejorative forms?  Is the pejorative
>>>>> restricted just to Ojibwe or do other language have distinct
>>>>> pejoratives?  Thank you for any information you can share.
>>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mr. Wayne A. Newell
>> P. O. Box 271
>> Princeton, ME 04668-0271
>>
>> Phone Contact Info
>>
>> 207-796-2905 Home
>> 207-214-2345 Cell
>> 207-796-2726 Fax
>
>
>