Historical Explanation for *pi as Plural and Proximate and Nominalizer

[R. Rankin]

> Now that she points it out, I agree with Regina that ob seems like it
> might derive from o'phA, which in Buechel is glossed 'to go with, follow;
> be present at, take part in'.  This seems to derive from a more complex
> gloss in Riggs 'to go with, to follow; to pursue, as opa aya [i.e., ophA +
> ayA 'to go' form 'to pursue'];  to go to , attend, as a school or meeting,
> to be present at; to be a member of, as an association or church; to go
> in, as in a canoe ...'.  We've just verified that Dakota verbs in final
> ChV (aspirated stop) can reduce to -C (final unaspirated stop) in
> subordinated forms.

OK, that answers my questions about the aspirates reducing to sonorants
syllable-finally.  And Dhegiha /ophe'/ 'step, follow', then, is the same as DA
/opha/.

> I suppose this analysis requires that the Proto-Crow-Hidatsa form is
> *a'api, and Crow has =haa added to reduced *a'ap?

I think the status of /-haa/ was pointed out by Randy, but in any event I defer
to him in all matters Crow.

> I'm vague on what happens to aspiration in Crow-Hidatsa.  I think it more
> or less disappears, i.e., that *hp and p, for example, behave the same.
> So, PS *hpa(re) 'bitter' with Hi (ara)pari 'bile', OP ppa 'bitter', and
> also PS *paN(he) 'call', with Hi paa (imp. sg. pah) 'shout', OP baN.
> 'call'.

I did an MALC/Siouan Conf. paper in Boulder on the PSI "C+h aspirates".  There
is direct evidence from the paradigm of 'speak' that aspiration was simply lost
in Mandan.  As I recall there was indirect evidence for the same loss in Crow
and Hidatsa, but I'd have to get the paper out for the details.  You probably
have it in the MALC volume.  Crow and Hidatsa do have some C+h aspirates, but I
don't think we have cognates for them and I am guessing that they are secondary.
Lots more work there though. . . .

> Now, if the PCH forms is *a'api and not *a'aphaa, it seems unlikely that
> the root here is the root in Da o'phA, which looks more like the 'go,
> travel' root *phE that appears as -hE in Omaha-Ponca, e.g., (udh)uhE 'to
> follow (a trail)', Osage (odh)o[ps^]e, IO (ir)owe(=are).  (This is the
> comparison made in Dorsey 1895, if I recall, and I think it is correct.)
> In fact, the two forms look like cognates, though the CSD seems to cross
> up the OP form with some other Dhegiha -hV forms probably of a different
> origin and compares Da okhihe 'follow' instead.

That needs to be fixed.  The problem is that I cannot do any editing on the CSD
entries as we discover these things because there is no editable computer file.
We'll have to fix that too next Summer sometime.

Bob