butterfly

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> Bob wrote:
> >  Kansa ... /nikkaphe/ 'comb' ...
> And OP       /mikka'he/ 'comb'
>
> So here we have a case of PDh *ni => OP mi !

Sharp eyes, Rory!  We'd have to check other cases to be sure which way the
shift went.  Perhaps mi(N)- here is (or is intended for) 'woman'.

Another example that I seem to recall, with apologies to everyone, is
Quapaw mikka sabe (not sure I have the proper Quapaw forms) 'black
person', literally 'black raccoon', recalling racist English usage.  I
think in this case the opportunity to pun with nikka ~ mikka was a factor.