Bows (IO tradition)/Yankton sociology (fwd)

[David Costa]

Hello all...

As a Lurking Algonquianist, I felt obliged to correct some of the Algonquian
forms given previously. I should warn people that the Proto-Algonquian
dictionary is not the most dependable place to get Algonquian data, for
either proto-forms or daughter language cognates. The daughter language data
is only as good as the original source from which it was taken.

I apologize if this is redundant by now, or if the interested parties
already have all these forms. I can't recall how much of this data has
already been given here, but since I had it at hand... (These are all
phonemic forms.)

(? = glottal stop, 'E' = front mid lax vowel, @ = schwa)

P.A. *me?tekwa:pyi 'bow, bowstring' (*me?tekw- 'tree, wood' + -a:py-
'string, cord')

Miami-Illinois mihte(h)ko:pa, mihte(h)kwa:pa 'bow', mihte(h)kwa:pinti,
mihte(h)ko:pinti 'bowstring'; also old Illinois mihtekwi & Miami mihtehki
'forest, timber, wood'

Shawnee mtekwa, pl. mtekwa:pali 'gun' [very likely the pre-contact word for
'bow', obviously], mtekwa:piti 'bowstring', and hilenahkwi 'bow'; also
mhtekwi 'tree'

Ojibwe mitigwa:b 'bow', mitig 'tree'

Potawatomi mt at gwap 'bow', mt at g 'tree'

Fox mehtekwa (archaic) & mehtekwanwi (modern) 'arrow', mehtekwi 'tree,
wood'; mehtekwa:pi 'bowstring' & mehte:ha 'bow'; Kickapoo mehte:ha 'bow'

Menominee nemE:?tek 'my bow' (animate; as an inanimate noun mE?tek this
means 'wood') & mE?tekuap 'bowstring, bow'

Cheyenne ma?tahke 'bow'

Arapaho bê:té? 'bow' & be:téyo:k 'bowstring'.

Another cognate set is exemplified by Ojibwe acha:b 'bowstring', Unami
Delaware hatá:p:i 'bow ', and the Miami-Illinois alternates ne:htia:pa
'bow' & ne:htia:pinti 'bowstring'. As I think has been mentioned, tho, this
etymon is mostly found in Eastern Algonquian, along the Atlantic Coast. I
haven't give those forms since I figure Maliseet and Unquachog aren't very
plausible candidates for Siouan loans. :-) Incidentally, the etymon doesn't
reconstruct cleanly. The consonant clusters line up rather poorly.

Thanks for your patience. Anyway, back to my lurking. :-)

best,

David Costa