PMV 'coyote' [was RE: coyotes]

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2002, R. Rankin wrote:
> This is interesting.  I got QU /nikka-$ika/ and, I
> think, Kaw /nikka-$iga/ for 'man, person' or in the
> term for 'clan' (Dorsey 'gens') several times.  At the
> time, I assumed I had somehow missed nasalization or
> that it had been omitted accidentally, and that it was
> a variant pronunciation of /z^iNk/ga/, the usual
> 'small' term.  This would now seem not to be so.  Looks
> like /sika/, /$ika/ (where's xika?) is a distinct term
> and more than just a sporadic sound change.

I looked further in OP and found

maN'hiN 'knife' :: maN'hiNsi 'arrow head'
ppa 'head' :: ppasi' 'tip; top of tree'
kkaNde 'plum' :: kkaNsi 'plum stone' (This is probably *su
  'kernel, seed')

I think there's some evidence that the -si in OP maN'hiNsi is historically
*ksi, as many languages show *maNksi for 'arrow head'.

JEK