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

[Rory M Larson]

> 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?

Yes.  I have the feeling that it was short, clear, and somewhat
lax, perhaps a bit "uh"-like.  At first I was trying to parse
the whole string /hE'ama`/ as one word (where ' represents
primary accent and ` represents a secondary 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'.

I'm not familiar with the word ishkoNshkoN, and I may have
gotten it wrong.  What I worked out with her, after some
negotiation, was:

  1s:  hE ama' oNnoN'shkoNshkoN

  2s:  hE ama' dhinoN'shkoNshkoN

  3s:  hE ama' noNshkoN'shkoN

If this is right, it should be an active verb describing
the activities of the (all-too) proximate lice with respect
to a hapless patient.  I took the instrumental prefix to be
noN- 'by foot', and I supposed the verb root to be
shkoN 'to move'.  The reduplication of this root would
indicate the massive plurality of the lice, and the
sentence would then mean: 'The lice are running about
all over the place with respect to [the patient]'.

Rory