Another Proto-Mississippi Valley *py Set

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, Jimm GoodTracks wrote:
> The suggestion for the Ponca term below suggested a "smelly potato" seem to
> be suggestive that the plant had an unpleasant odor.  If the Ponca term does
> referr to  "potato", the reference would be that of the Wild Potato, which
> is identified as the Arrow root, which grows in marsh or swappy wetland
> areas.

I think that the traditional, though not necessarily only wild or Indian
potato is identified as Apios americana (Te blo, OP nu, Wi doo).  Arrow
root as a regional English plant term per se I can't place, though I'm
sure I've heard it as a term fo a starchy root product.  Arrowleaf is
Sagittaria latifolia (Te ps^ithola, OP siN, Wi siNiNporo).  Wild onions
are Allium canadense (Te ps^iN, OP maz^aNxe (also maz^aNkka?), Wi
s^iNiNghop).  There's also the tipsin or Psoralea esculenta (Te thipsiNla,
OP nugdhe, Wi dookewehi).

The roots of the words (*pro, *psiN ~ ps^iN), and maybe the roots of the
plants, too, are similar enough in to show that there is a process of
association here.  A quick look through Buechel and other sources shows a
fair number of plant terms with the root psiN, ps^iN, psi, ps^i, psiNc^a,
etc., and I think we'd have similar numbers of forms in siN, s^iN, etc.,
for those languages that lose the initial p if we had better lists of
plants for them.  In some cases it's hard to know where a notion of
similarity leaves off and one of considering the plants to be one taxon in
ethnobotanical terms begins, though I think the three above were clearly
all considered distinct plants by Gilmore's consultants.

The word for 'rice' is psiN (> siN in OP, Wi, etc.), but I think this is
just a chance similarity, though it's possible that the association here
is one of edible wetland plant.

> Meanwhile, IOM has separate words that do convey "smelly; stinky" namely
> "xu'mi"; and when somthing is really stink, they say "nax'ta" (nax'tHa).

The xu'mi form has a resemblant, in Omaha-Ponca xwiN.  They're probably
actually cognate, those this is something of an iconic sound.

> IOM is quite consistant with this contraction as seen in the words:
> "ñyu'wagu (spring) from "ñi [n~iN (water) + uwe' (go along) + gu (start
> to come")]; "byu'wahu" (East) from: "bi (sun) + uwe' + hu (come from)" ;
> "byu'ware" (West) from: "bi + uwe' + re (go to).  These are some words
> that come to mind.

OK, this shows that there's no question of inconsistency or irregularity
in the transcription of p(h)yubraN.  Whatever the process, contractions
with u- have u.  Also, since we have a contrast of pyubraN and byuware,
it's clear that the issue of p vs. ph is purely orthographic.  Jimm writes
p : b, t : d, etc., while I've been writing ph : b, th : d, etc., under
the influence of Bob Rankin, to help clarify the tendency in some sources
to write b, d, etc., as b ~ p, d ~ t, etc.

Now if 'mosquito' were just attested as gyawaNge somewhere ...  As far as
I know it's not.