Muskogean 9

[Koontz John E]

I had to foward this one again because the Subject included the phrase
"please ignore."

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz

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Subject: Error Condition Re: Re: Muskogean 9; Siouanists please ignore.


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From: "R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu>
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Subject: Re: Muskogean 9; Siouanists please ignore.
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> > Ok, I'll ask the obvious: could "nine" be the original Choctaw meaning with
> > the "(be) pregnant" meaning referring to number of the month the pregnancy
> > is in?

This would require looking at the time-keeping structure of the Choctaws
(et al.), which was probably lunar, although I'm in near total ignorance
of it.  All I know is that Dhegiha "month" terms are most often not
cognate and aren't really months -- they are descriptive terms for "short
seasons" that have sort of coalesced around Euro-month names since
contact.  But Eric's point is well taken as is Pam's.  Anything is
possible.  I just think that, at the moment, everything is unproven.  A
comprehensive search in other Muskogean languages for cognates of
'pregnant' in Choctaw/Chickasaw might well shed badly needed light on the
semantics of any earlier term.

Right now I still think of the "shanhka" word as a Wanderwort, native to
none of the three families where we find it.

 Bob