gypsum or "mica"

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 bi1 at soas.ac.uk wrote:
> Maya means 'bank' or 'cliff'' as in maya gliheya 'steep bank'

Oops, sounds like I was barking up the wrong tree.  The OP 'bank' word is
maNa' (< *maNha').  The 'land', 'mud, mire', 'soil', 'clay', 'bank/cliff'
terms seem to be shuffled from one language to another in Mississippi
Valley, though I've never set myself down to try to work it out.

Forms like maNa' are one reason it's hard to use just a regular n to mark
nasality in OP.  The other reason is that ma and maN contrast, thanks to
the *W > m, *R > n shift.  However, I'm not sure na and naN do contrast at
present.  Dorsey seems to have felt that they did in the 1880s.