Michigamea (Re: (O)maha)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, David Costa wrote:
> Right, the /-si(i)w-/ negative often seen in Ojibwe & Miami is a fusion of a
> diminutive suffix (the part with the 's') with an old dubitative suffix (the
> part with the 'w'). My point was just that the leap from an old Algonquian
> suffix to a prefix in an apparently Siouan language seems unlikely.

It's interesting that negatives and dubitatives intertwine in Algonquian,
since similar things seem to occur in Siouan.  It certainly seems natural
enough, but you like to see it happening elsewhere and even in the
neighborhood, if possible.

If I had to explain Mandan wa- (and maybe Michigamea *we-) I think I'd be
inclined to see it as a somewhat heavily modified version of *wiN-...
'one', or, in effect, as an analog of the post verbal elements in more
familiar European circumfixal negatives, e.g., French ne VERB pas, point,
etc. 'not VERB a step, a bit' cf.  wa-VERB-NEG < 'one' VERB-NEG 'to not
... one(ce)'.  The form of PS 'one' is somewhat difficult because of the
amount of similarly arbitrary ammendment in the daughter languages.  Bob
Rankin probably knows the material better.