Experiencer Verb (Re: Different /e/ phonemes in Siouan?)

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> The "louse" term was originally volunteered with an article:
>
>   HE' ama' oNnoN'shkoNshkoN
>
> which she translated as:
>
>   The bugs [which she later corrected to "head lice"]
>   are making my head itch.

This is a beautiful example of an experiencer verb - inflects like a
stative (stem ishkoNshkoN, apparently?) - but takes two arguments - the
louse/lice and the person suffering them.  I'd guess the i- governs he=ama
here.

On a phonetic note, you had ama' with final accent?

Also, I'm assuming oNnoNshkoNshkoN represents oNthoNshkoNshkoN < oN +
ishkoNshkoN, but it might be that noN- represents an instrumental, though
I'd expect theoretically unnasalized na- 'spontaneous action' rather than
noN- 'by foot'.

This brings back interesting memories - I remember when head lice ran
through my daughters' elementary school and we were all using the shampoo
and combing with the special combs and keeping toys in bags and what not
for weeks.