Historical Explanation for *pi as Plural and Proximate and Nominalizer

[Koontz John E]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004, R. Rankin wrote:
> I wonder if there are other instances of aspirates reducing to voiced
> stops (or nasals) word- or syllable-finally?  I know this happens to /p,
> t, k/ --> /b, l/d, g/, but I'm a little surprised to see it with /ph/.
> I'm no Dakotanist though, so I defer to you guys on these sound changes.

I think the example we were discussing was anuNkha ~ anuNg 'on both
sides'.  Ophe(ya) ~ ob is the only other one I am sure of.

It could be that such pairs can only exist where the is an historical
pattern of VG+hV, i.e., where the aspirate derives from an historical C-h
morpheme boundary, i.e., where both the VG and VChV forms have coexisted
since Proto-Mississippi Valley.  Or I suppose such a pattern in a few
cases might lead to other examples by analogy.