Virtues-wolves-coyotes

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, R. Rankin wrote:
> Referring to coyotes as 'slasher' smacks of taboo replacement, doesn't
> it?  I guess Crow borrows the term from Kiowa but most Siouan
> languages use a derivation of *$uNke 'canid'.

I asked Victor Golla about Athabascan coyote terms.  His comment from a
California perspective was that they were a mass of replacements not
resembling the term in question.  The Dakotan forms certainly look like
replacements, right down to a certain variability in how to say them.

As far as 'canid' replacement terms, the Omaha-Ponca term is mi'kkasi,
which I had always thought might have something to do with mikka'
'raccon', but, since si is 'foot', that not only leaves us with something
more or less obscure (to me anyway), but neglects the difference in
accent.  If, for the sake of argument, I match the mi' with the ma'- in
Dakotan, an irregular, but not unprecedented match, the remainder -kkasi
still isn't clear.  But perhaps this is telling me that the whole term
isn't native?  There's certainly nothing wrong with the phonology per se.
It's just that the pieces don't seem to support any reasonably etymology
within my admittedly shallow and non-native grasp of the language.

JEK