Oglala (was Re: Locative Postpositions)

[Robert L. Rankin]

"Alan H. Hartley" wrote:
>
> Looking back at OP NiN Ubdhadha 'Niobrara', I guess ubdhadha *can* be
> applied to liquids! (niN is 'river', isn't it?)

Yes.  Kansa cognate is /blaya/.  Teton should be also.  If Dakotan has
-la as the last syllable, then it isn't strictly cognate; something has
interferred with the development of *r into y.  Normally when we get /l/
in such a term, it means there was once a cluster of consonants there,
one of which has been lost.  Nothing like that is evident in the Omaha
or Kansa terms.

The *wr/*kr variants in the 'bug, worm, vermin' words doesn't represent
a sound change.  Rather, it seems to be some version of sound symbolism.
The vowels can differ in those words too.  The terms might be compared
loosely to English "creepy crawly".  Both words begin with the same
consonant cluster and end with -y.  But they are not related
etymologically.  Since we are not dealing with sound change here, I do
not personally believe that an Omaha word beginning with bdh-, like
'wide', can be cognate with a Dakotan word beginning with k-.  They're
just different etyma.  And, of course, the OM -dh- vs. Dakotan -l- or
-d- gets in the way too.

Bob