CHIWERE etymology

[Robert L. Rankin]

The deictic string in Jiwere/Jigiwere is similar in nature to that
present in Omaha-Ponca "dhegiha", Kansa "yegaha", Osage "dhekaha", etc.
These are apparently very common sorts of things in some Siouan
languages.  Etymologically (morphologically?) each syllable here was/is
a morpheme.  They are deictic particles of various kinds with individual
meanings like 'this, that, yon; here, there, yonder; now, then, yore'
etc. with additional semantic elements referring to distance from
speaker/hearer, visibility and probably other characteristics.  The
strings can get very long.  In my Quapaw sketch, some of them must be 6
or 8 (or more) morphemes long and may combine freely with the positional
articles.  In some instances the strings of particles get lexicalized
and acquire some meaning greater that the sum of their semantic parts.

As for Siouan 101, I don't think any of us understands these things,
especially the lexicalized ones....  What we need is about 300 more
linguists working the languages.

Bob

> > I guess it boils down to agreeing that j^egiwere would mean something like
> > 'the ones here', and j^iwere seems to be a contraction of it.
>
> Now we're getting down to Siouan 101. That's what I need, though I do
> very much appreciate any detailed analysis you can give.
>
> > You
> > can just cite Dorsey in the knowledge that he's certainly correct.  I
> > don't suppose there's even a point in comparing it to Dhegiha.
>
> On the contrary, I find the analogy very interesting, and the OED does
> like to note etymological parallels.