Archaic A1 p- in Dakotan.

[Robert L. Rankin]

> Buechel (1980) mentions archaic paradigm for ?u:
> phu = wa?u (p.449)
> sku = ya?u [BigHead] (p.465).

This is a mixed conjugation in which two different verb roots (at least)
have been incorporated in what amounts to a suppletive conjugation.  One
of the verbs is {?u}/{hu}, the other is {ku}, which is quite distinct.
This verb behaves like what I normally call an H-stem.  The archaic,
probably proto-Siouan, conjugation for them was:

1sg  *w-hu	>   phu
2sg  *y-hu	>   s^u  (the h is lost after s^ in all these verbs)

Some of these are better preserved in other subgroups of Siouan.  The set
of H-stems includes ?*u/hu 'come', *hi 'arrive', *-he 'say', *he 'be' and
perhaps a few others.

Note that it is not uncommon for these verbs to be lacking an inflectional
prefix in one or more persons in some languages.  With so few members, the
prefixes in this subclass are probably just not recognized as signaling
person and case by most speakers.  Thus the full reduplication of 'say'
mentioned earlier.

I couldn't find any reduplicated forms either.  If they turn up they might
be of several shapes.  Perhaps phuphu, phuhu, huhu, phu?u or something
else.  Dakotan has lost or reduced most of the proto-Siouan irregular,
conjugations.

Thanks for checking.  If all of us keep after these things, there's no
telling what we may find.

Bob