glottal stems.

[Robert L. Rankin]

> I haven't memorized all the right examples, but 'come' is definitely
> vowel-initial (uNku pi), whereas 'use' and 'be' are both glottal initial
> (uNk?uN pi).

While the inclusive u~k- is often glottalized with "glottal stems", I've
found that it isn't always reliably that way.  Since u~k- seems to be a
more recent pronominal prefix (appearing to the left of others in the verb
prefix template, such as it is) it sometimes seems to be added to the 3rd
person form and sometimes not, at least in the languages I've studied.
I'd say it's certain that 'come' is unique.

The known glottal stop stems (from my memory, which may be missing a
couple) are few.  Most are nasal:

*?u~	'do, be'
*i?u~	'do with, use' (same root as 1)
*?i~	'wear about the shoulders'
*ya-?i~	'think'
*?o	'shoot, wound'

*?u	'arrive coming (?)' MAY be such a verb because of
	(a) its conjugation in Dakotan
	(b) its parallel irregularities in other Siouan
	(c) the Catawba alternations Blair points out.

	Any verb with parallel irregularities in both Siouan and Catawban
is showing some VERY old alternations -- probably 4K years plus.  We may
never understand all the complexities, but we can be thankful that Buechel
and others recorded the conservative conjugation when they did.  I bet it
would be hard to elicit nowadays.

Bob