praat and Buechel

[rwd0002 at unt.edu]

Hi all:

Maybe we should drop Indo-European again now and get back to
> Siouan; I'm sorry for the distraction.  Did you all read Willem de Reuse's
> very thoughtful review of the new edition of Buechel in the most recent
> (April) IJAL?  He says we're working on a Lakota dictionary here, but
> that's only in our dreams.  There's a major project waiting for someone.

Thanks David, for kindly mentioning my review of Buechel in order to get back
to Siouan. It is a not criticism of the project being stalled of course, but
basically saying that the new Buechel is definitely not the answer to our
Lakotanist lexicographical dreams.

As a Dutch speaker, I can't resist putting in my two cents on the word praat
which means 'talk' in Dutch, either as the imperative of the verb 'praten' or
the noun 'talk'.  My Dutch etymological dictionary has possible cognates High
German dialectal pfattern 'to mumble' and Old Norse pati 'rumor, gossip', but
that most likely this is just West Germanic. One more reason to let go of Indo-
European.

Willem