Cranberries

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, R. Rankin wrote:
> The question for Siouanists, then, is what does *htak- mean?

Well, first, it turns out that my memory had another hole in it.  The form
for 'cranberry' in Winnebago is hooc^aN'ke, vs. hooc^aNk 'Winnebago'.
Hooc^aN'kehu is 'cranberry bush'.  So, the vowel is nasal after all.

I've been looking for this, or, rather probably for *htaNh-, though I
think *htaNk-ka and *htaNh-ka would come out the same:  Da *thaNkha,
Dhegiha *ttaNkka, IO *thaNkhe, Wi *c^aaNke.  You would only know which if
you had some reflexes of *htaNk-(a/e), presumably Da *thaNka (homophonous
with thaqNka 'big'), Dhegiha *ttaNke, IO *thaNke (thaN<ng>e ~ thaN<ny>e),
Wi *c^aNaNk, or presumably Da *thaNhaN, Dhegiha *ttaNhe, IO *thaNhe, Wi
*c^aNaN (?), i.e., forms without the *-ka extension.

In regard to the -h case, I don't think Bob has published this anywhere,
but it's pretty widely known among comparative Siouanists (all less than 5
of them), that he realized that the somewhat similar senses of Dakotan
-kha and -ka as verb extensions come from from adding *-ka to *CVh- and
*CV0- stems respectively.  (I hope to heaven I got that right!)  There are
various examples of *CVh- roots in the CSD.  The critical cases are in
Crow, if I recall, which has -Va from Vha forms.  (I think it's Crow and
not Hidatsa.)

By the way - reflexes of *htaN-ka 'big' in Winnebago with the extension
*-ka present, include besides hooc^aN'k 'Winnebago' also keec^aN'k
'turtle', cf. OP kke'ttaNga 'big turtle, i.e., snapping turtle', and
rac^aN'k 'to praise'.  Without *-ka I though I remembered deec^aN 'ocean'
< *pre-htaN(-ka) 'lake-big', but I see Miner lists "teej^aN."

As far as reflexes of *htaNh- or *thaNk-, with or without *-ka, so far
nothing.  I suppose *htaN-ka 'big' may provide too much interference.

Without nasality I notice Good Tracks lists tak?e ~ thake 'raw', the first
being from a form "tak'e" cited in Wistrand-Robinson, which might be from
a form with opening apostrophe, i.e., t(h)akhe.  The second form's th may
support aspiration of the t.  You have to combine the two forms (Jimm
does) and read between the lines to get *thakhe, and, of course, that
lacks the nasalization.

JEK