Comparison with PUA 'blue'/'black'

[Koontz John E]

I said I'd provide the Proto-Uto-Aztecan form for 'blue'.  This is from a
PUA list prepared by the late Wick Miller.  It turns out that the
comparison is a bit more complex than I remembered, and therefore more
dubious.

PSi *sap(e) 'black' cf. PUA *sak<raised w> 'blue' (Miller # 50)
PSi *hto(ho) 'grue' cf. PUA *tu, tuhu 'black'     (Miller # 45a)

Notice that the glosses are reversed.  I assume any connection would be a
matter of loans one direction or another.  Note, however, that the Siouan
sets, and I presume the UA sets can be regularly reconstructed, so this
would have to be a very old pair of loans.  I don't have any mechanism in
mind to account for a reversal of the glosses for these two colors, though
both are dark colors, and fairly basic ones in the development of color
system complexity.

All things considered, it seems easier to think of this comparison as
reflected some sort of coincidence.

JEK