Stars.

[RLR]

> In Lakota the word for 'star' is wichah^pi .
> Normally the prefix wicha- refers to animate plurals.  Does anyone
> know why it turns up in the word for star?

Hard to say. I'd guess either by accident or, perhaps, by
folk-etymology. The form in several related languages is nasalized:

Omaha-Ponca
mikka'?e
Kansa
	mikka'k?e
Osage
	mihka'k?e
Quapaw
	mikka'x?e

These languages have no obvious reflex of a form that would underlie
wicha "Man/person". However the folk etymology could have gone either
way, i.e., the wicha in Dakotan may represent folk etymology connecting
'man' with 'star' (as in several traditional stories). Or the mi- of
Dhegiha dialects may represent a fancied connection with mi- 'sun'. I
resist connecting Dhegiha with mikka/mihka 'raccoon'. The m/w *should
not* be corresponding here without a nasal vowel in the term, so there
is certainly some sort of analogical change going on.

The suffix is different in the two subgroups also. It appears as though
-?e is a suffix in Dhegiha and the same -pi suffix we find so well
represented in Dakotan nouns turns up there. So the glottalized
fricative found originally in Dhegiha is historically most likely a
composite with a morpheme boundary in the middle. Then the result
underwent the usual Dhegiha change: *x? > k? > ? with Kansa/Osage
retaining the middle form and Omaha-Ponca showing the last stage. There
are plenty of other examples of this change.

In the Comparative Dictionary files 'star' is very peculiar overall and
hard to reconstruct. I don't have all the forms available at the moment,
but I'll get them if anyone is interested. My recollection is that there
are at least two quite distinct etyma reconstructible.  But there are
problems with both. I don't think that any of them can be reconstructed
with 'man' as a component though.

Bob

Is it from some other
> earlier use or some other morph.  Does the wicha- occur in any
> other Siouan reflexes for 'star'.  It is tempting to think of it as having
> something to do with spirits of the dead, but I'm sure that's far-
> fetched.