Virtues-wolves-coyotes

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, David Costa wrote:
> I find it interesting that most Siouan languages don't have a totally
> separate word for 'coyote' as opposed to 'dog'. Does this mean that there
> isn't a clearly reconstructible Proto-Siouan word for 'coyote'?

I'd say not, and that it wasn't surprising for the same reason that
Algonquian lacks one.  Not to mention any issue of avoidance.  (OK, that
was an accident!)  On the other hand, there's not really any
reconstructable term for 'wolf' distinct from 'dog' (and often, now,
'horse').  Terms for 'wolf' often come down to 'big canid' or 'wild
canid'.

Aside:  Siouan languages are really good at making do with a rather
minimal set of short noun roots and somewhat more numerous short verb
roots, put to work on building a larger working vocabulary with the aid of
intensive nominalization and/or compounding.  This is why Proto-Siouanists
end up with long lists of monosyllabic and bisyllabic roots combined with
a handful of very busy verb affixes and enclitics.  Even the bisyllabic
roots are in many cases effectively monosyllabic, as the second syllable
vowel seems to be almost an independent element saying 'it's a root'.
Sometimes you get a glimmering of the processes that collapsed longer
original forms into the attested monosyllables and bisyllables, and then
you realize that the apocopated first syllable is just a prefix wa-
anyway, or that the second syllable initial consonants of some verb roots
show signs of being old d4erivational morphology, etc.

> So Miami and Potawatomi use a formation that transparently means
> 'common wolf', ...

A verb meaning 'common' (or 'garden variety') is a common derivational
element in Mississippi Valley Siouan, too.  For example, 'common whiteman'
= 'French' or 'common person' = 'Indian'.  A similar element is 'very,
true', e.g., 'true deer' = 'deer'.

> Arapaho and Cheyenne, on the other hand, share a word ... Don't ask me
> why 'coyote' should be called 'the one that opens it by tool'.

I suspect someone with a knowledge of Coyote and/or Trickster stories
could fathom this trope (or ken this kenning?).

> Do most Siouan languages have a separate 'wolf' word independent from their
> 'coyote'/'dog' word? *If* no clear Proto-Siouan word that unequivocally
> means 'coyote' can be reconstructed, then I guess that means that the
> Proto-Siouans didn't have them, and that either some Siouans moved into the
> range of them, or that coyotes themselves expanded their range (definitely
> known to have happened at least over the last couple centuries).

I think I've answered the 'wolf' question, though I think that at least
thw Crow-Hidtsa and Mandan people would have been in coyote territory for
a long time (at least a 1000 years).  I believe the eastward spread of the
coyote is supposed to be connected with the demise of the wolf.  Maybe the
spread of the open environment of farmlands amnd suburbs is also relevant.
That's supposed to explain the eastward spread of the red fox along with
the present superabundance of genus Odocoileus deer.  Archaeologists think
Native Americans of the Midwestern area preferred the prairie and
forest/prairie interface to forest and increased prairie by systematically
burning over open areas to kill saplings, but Euroamerican farming and now
suburbanization produces the same effect on a larger scale.  Coyotes,
foxes, and whitetails, among others (robins, cottontails), are pretty
happy with small farms or suburbs full of open space.

JEK