Archaic A1 p- in Dakotan.
Robert L. Rankin
rankin at lark.cc.ukans.edu
Tue Apr 6 19:44:44 UTC 1999
> With respect to snow', Catawba dialects and Woccon show three different
> forms that appear to reflect reduplication.
In Siouan it's clear there was (and still is) a common prefix with the
form wa-. If the root is also wa, it would appear to be reduplication,
but wouldn't be. Lawson's Woccon form is indeed wawawa, suggesting that
redup. is a possibility however.
> The w-w form in Siouan may result from syncope in something like Catawba
> wa:?wa, while the Dakota form may be comparable with Catawba wa:?.
As far as we can tell, the form with the wV- prefix is reconstructible as
such, so Dakotan, if it has just wa 'snow' would either have lost the
prefix via a morphological (i.e. not sound change) reanalysis OR the
regular reflex of "funny W" in Dakotan is just [wa]. I can't remember
enough funny W forms from Siouan (it's rare) in their Dakotan reflex to
know.
Bob
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