Nominal Ablaut in Crow

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 Rgraczyk at aol.com wrote:
> It's about time to add some Crow data to the discussion, lest the
> Siouan list become the Dhegiha list!

I'm sorry.  I really do very much regret that tendency.  It makes for a
dry and rather exhausting list.

> 1) Stems ending in short a or i ablaut to e in the citation form, the form
> that occurs as an independent word, e.g.
>
> bili' 'water' (stem)
> bile' (citation form)

Based on the following, some nouns (in -ii?) form their citation form by
adding -a?

> 3) In addition to these, there are some nouns that ablaut before plural -u
> and before other suffixes beginning with -a:
>
> b'itchii 'knife' (stem)
> bi'tchiia (citation form)
> bi'ttaa-u 'knives' (+ plural; ablaut)
>
> iskoochi'i 'enemy' (stem)
> iskoochi'ia (citation form)
> iskoota'a-u (+plural; ablaut)