Inflecting 'to paint'

[ROOD DAVID S]

In the course of our discussions of the wa- that Regina has just written
about, I noticed some strange behavior in the morphology of this verb 'to
paint, to spread on, to annoint' and wondered whether other Siouanists
have either parallel examples or some more insightful explanation of the
facts than "analogy".
	The verb may or may not have the initial w-, as Regina points out.
Otherwise, there seem to be two pronunciations: i'uN and iyuN.  Buechel
records only the variant with -y-, but Regina's speaker alternates freely.
	At this point, we seem to have a possible epenthetic /y/
optionally replacing a glottal stop, or a glottal stop replacing a /y/ --
something that doesn't bother me much, though I can't think of any other
places where that happens.
	The problem is that the first person form is iwayuN or iwa'uN,
plural uNkiyuNpi according to Buechel, but when the wiyuN form is used,
Neva (our speaker) says it has to be wiyuNk'uNpi or wi'uNk'uNpi.  Now the
y/' alternation is transferred to BEFORE the pronominal affix, and the
root consonant seems to be unambiguously a glottal stop.
	Questions: is the etymology of this word i 'instrument' plus 'uN
'use'?  Evidence for yes: the organic glottal evidenced by the first
person plural inflected forms, and the fact that the first person plural
goes in front of the verb if there is no w-.  Evidence for no: the first
person singular prefix is -wa-, not -m-.
	Alternative: the /y/ is organic, and the verb has nothing to do
with 'use'. Evidence for: Buechel's consistent transcription with /y/;
evidence against: the first person plural forms of the w- verb, where the
y/' alternation occurs between different morphemes, albeit in the same
phonemic (not phonetic, not necessarily phonological, but phonemic)
environment (i_uN).  I think the apparent uniqueness of the glide
alternation here is also evidence against this.  Moreover, if the /y/ were
part of the verb stem, then the correct first person singular inflection
(before the nasal vowel) should be either -m- or -mn- replacing the /y/.
	Alternative: the verb stem is i'uN, but 'uN is not the 'use' verb.
There is a verb 'uN that inflects wa'uN, uNk'uNpi, but it means 'live,
exist', and I rule it out on semantic grounds. So this theory would
imply that there is a third -'uN root, perhaps attested in only this
verb (with the instrumental prefix, supposedly).  This accounts
for everything, I think, except the phonetically plausible y/'
alternation.
	Question: what does anyone else think is the phonological UR of
this verb stem?  Is there etymological data that might give us a clue?

David

David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu