spatial/locational paradigms

[BARudes at aol.com]

Jess,

Before I answer your immediate question, perhaps some background on the
Tuscarora (Northern Iroquoian) suffixes is in order.  In each of the Northern
Iroquoian language, the vast major of simple nouns consist of a noun root
preceded by a noun prefix and followed by a noun suffix.  For most nouns, the
noun prefixes are either ka-/w- (Wyandot ya-/zero ~m) or o-/aw- (Tuscarora,
Wyandot u-/aw-).  Pretty much everyone traces the origin of these prefixes to
the Proto-Northern Iroquoian neuter singular agent prefixes *ka- / *w- and
the neuter singular patient prefixes *yo- / *yaw-. The noun suffix has a
variety of forms, none of which has a clear root connection: *-a?, *-ah,
*-eh, *-e?,  *-i?, *-ih, *-èØ.  In a 1985 article (Rudes, B.A. 1985.
Reconstructing Word Order in a Polysynthetic Language: from SOV to SVO in
Iroquoian. In: J. Fisiak (ed.) Historical Syntax, pp. 201-256. The Hague:
Mouton) I argued the structure of nouns in the Northern Iroquoian languages
suggested an origin in predicate nominals, and that the various forms of the
noun suffix were relics of old verb-aspect marker combinations.

In a 1991 presentation at the Iroquois conference, I presented data original
gathered by J.N.B. Hewitt in the late 19th century that illustrated the
different meanings of the external locative (-kye) when different noun
suffixes were present.  Here are some of the examples.  I leave it to you to
determine what is being encoded by the difference in noun suffixes.

    -a?kye      on, on the surface of, on top of
    -ehkye      at, at the place of, in
    -eN?kye      on (as a fixture of), against

-(a)haha?kye:   uhah'a?kye     on the road, path, way
-(a)hahehkye:   uhah'hkye     at the road, at the place of the road
-(a)haheN?kye:  uhah'eN?kye     on or against the road, or stairway


-(a)heN?na?kye: uheN?n'a?kye     on, on the surface of the meadow
-(a)heN?nehkye:     uheN?n'ehkye     at, in the meadow or grassy plot of
ground
-(a)heN?neN?kye:    uheN?n'eN?kye     on or in the meadow as a part of its
surface


-ci?ehna?kye:   uci?ehn'a?kye     on, on top of the claw, talon
-ci?ehnehkye:   uci?ehn'ehkye     at, at the place of the claw
-ci?ehneN?kye:  uci?ehn'eN?kye     on (as a fixture of) the claw

Blair