Historical Explanation for *pi as Plural and Proximate and Nominalizer

[Wablenica]

Hello all,

It looks that there are (were) two "opha" verbs:
o'pxa, o'wapxa, o'uNpxapi, "to join; follow; participate" in Boas&Deloria, and
opxA', owa'pxe, uNko'pxapi, "to go by way of".

Tuesday, February 10, 2004, 5:33:41 PM, R.Rankin wrote:

>> It would be interesting to check on the etymology of
>> opha 'to join' as well. Maybe all three forms, i.e.
>> -pi, ob, and opha, are, ultimately, related. The
>> semantic fit of ob 'with' and opha 'to join' is just
>> to close to be neglected, at least to me.

RR> I wonder if there are other instances of aspirates reducing to voiced stops (or
RR> nasals) word- or syllable-finally?  I know this happens to /p, t, k/ --> /b,
RR> l/d, g/, but I'm a little surprised to see it with /ph/.  I'm no Dakotanist
RR> though, so I defer to you guys on these sound changes.

RR> The only /ophE/ I know of in Dhegiha is the verb 'step, tread, follow a path'.
RR> I'll look for 'join'.

Cf. Boas & Deloria "Dakota Grammar", Page 35.

Outside of the CVC group contraction of verbs ending in a occurs in
the groups pha and kha. All the contracted forms are adverbial.

chapha' to stab, icha'p, acha'p sticking in, on it;
chopha' to wade, mnicho'p wading in water;
o'pha to join, op in company with several;
napha' to flee; ina'p hiding behind, ai'nap on the farther side of
(hidden by); with the verbs of arrival i, hi, gli, khi, -napha does
not contract: hina'pha to come out from; otha'pha to follow in the
tracks of someone, oye'othap following tracks, atha'p following on
(the heels of someone), i'thap soon after, already;
i'tkokhipha to go to meet face to face, itko'p going out to meet
someone who is coming;
khapha' to beat in a contest, to have a superabundance (akha'p exceedingly)

Others do not contract, p.e.:
akhi'pha to happen to meet face to face;
opha' to go by a certain way, but wato'pha to row a boat (wa'ta-opha'), forms wato'p;
apha' to strike;
ithuN'pha to admire, be careful with;
ikho'pha to fear lest;
khoki'pha to be afraid;
aho'pha to honor, to observe a law

In the group kha we find:
anuN'kha(taNhaN) anuN'k on both sides;
to'kha, to'k it is some way, how is it


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Best regards,
Constantine                            mailto:wablenica at mail.ru