OP waiiN 'robe'

[rlarson at unlnotes01.unl.edu]

>> waiiN' s^ku'be 'thick robe' JOD 90:40-18

> An incidental footnote:  I believe I transcribed waiiN' 'robe' as it was
> provided by Dorsey, in the sense of one thing for one thing.  I never
> heard it said myself.  I've always assumed it was something like wai'?iN
> or wa(?)iN'i, except that I'd expect the first to be *we'?iN and I can't
> see why the form would be plural (the second alternative).  I'm assuming
a
> connection with [?]iN 'wear on the shoulders'.  One of those little
> mysteries that I can't solve, though the smaller they are, the more
> grateful I am.  Except that anything that simultaneously challenges the
> foundation block of second syllable or, better, second mora stress and
the
> morphophonemics of wa-i- can't be swept under the carpet without leaving
a
> bit of a bulge.

> I suppose this term might be the one used today for blanket, but I don't
> remember that.

Could it just be wa?iN' meaning 'that which is worn', with the glottal
stop being elided for lazy speech, while the moment originally alotted
to it is epenthetically taken up with oral /i/ as the jaw and tongue
move into position for the following /iN/ before the vellum opens the
passage to the nasal cavity?

The form *we'?iN apparently does exist in the term shoN'geweiN, meaning
'harness' ['thing-by-means-of-which-a-horse-draws-with-its-shoulders'],
as given in Fletcher & LaFlesche on page 621.

Rory