Wo(ta) (RE: argument structure k'u etc.)

[Jimm GoodTracks]

For what it's worth:
IOM:
haji, I eat; raji, you eat; ruje, he/she/it eats.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Koontz John E" <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
To: "Siouan List" <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 1:09 PM
Subject: Wo(ta) (RE: argument structure k'u etc.)


> On Tue, 5 Apr 2005, Jan F. Ullrich wrote:
> RP> There are some biphonemic classificatory prefixes with nominal
> reference
>
> JU> This is actually what I had in my mind. On page 71 Boas&Deloria
>> actually list wo- ('food') among those "nominal prefixes" you mention
>> above. This was where I was coming from but couldn't remember the source
>> until I made a search for it.
>
> When I saw Regina's comment I got to thinking I might have seen something
> like wo = woyuta in Boas & Deloria, but I hadn't gotten around to checking
> it yet.  Since we have the contracted form wota, I suppose one could argue
> that wo- as a classificatory prefix is from wol-, which seem plausible.
> For example, Dakota speakers of the previous century - the century before
> last I guess, now - seemed to find it plausible that Thi(N)thuN(waN)
> 'Teton' should be derived from thiNta + thuNwaN, presumably via
> thiNl-thuNwaN [thiNnthuN(w)aN].
>
> Wota itself is consistent with the A1 wate, A2 yate inflection of yuta (if
> I remember), which is paralleled by Winnebago A1 haac^, A2 raac^, A3
> ruuc^.  This suggests something unusual about yuta - PMVS *ru(u)t, or
> perhaps is a bit of Dakotan irregularity that has been transferred into
> Winnebago.
>
> I hope I'm getting the final vowel of yuta correct in the various forms
> above!
>
> However, all this aside, I still suspect wok?u < wa-o-k?u.  It seems to
> have a sort of partitive sense.
>
> JU> I agree with you (and John) and the reduction of wo'yute to wo'-
>> seems rather complex. But I can't help the feeling that I have seen
>> something of this type happening. I don't remember what it was but if I
>> run into it again, this time I would keep record.
>
> If there are other examples of this it would certainly be interesting.  I
> seem to recall hearing that there are sometimes drastic simplications in
> Algonquian compounds.
>