Terms for "white man"

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Bruce Ingham wrote:
> Could S^ahiya not also be 'red speaker' (meaning possibly non-Siouan) or is
> there another known origin for it.

I believe the h is extra if the form is s^a + iye.  The syntax is also
different from iyeska, for example, though perhaps either order would be
acceptable.  It makes more sense to me to see s^ahi'ya as s^ahi' + (y)a,
where -(y)a is the "independent stem"  forming suffix (absolute marker)
that occurs in some Dakotan stems ending in high vowels, e.g., heya,
wiNyaN, maxpiya, and so on.  The same formant occurs with such stems in
some cases before some of the short or enclitic postpositions, like -ta
(e.g., with thiyata).  The s^ahi' form for 'Cree' is also pretty well
attested in various other languages, though not, apparently, in Santee or
Teton.  This -ya is -ye in e-grade contexts so when =la follows you get
s^ahi'yela, cf. sa'pa, sa'pela, and so on.