m's, w's and Turkey

[Anthony Grant]

Dear all:

1) Regarding m and w. one of the first records of Wichita records the
word for 'moon' as <moir> in a gallicising spelling, so something like
/mwa/ is intended.  It just has a plain w- now, corresponding to other
Northern Caddoan forms such as Arikara /pah/. Maybe Wichita /w/ > PNC *w
had a separate reflex in earlier days from /w/ > PNC *w, and this is a
last echo of it.  And Randolph Marcy recorded the Spanish loan for
'mule' in Wichita as <Moo-rur>, representing something like /mu:ra/. 
Occasional b's crop up in some 19th century Wichita data too, and as far
as I know (I'm doing thsi from memory) they're the equivalent of modern
/w/ now.  

2) Regarding /peleewa/, note the borrowing /pinwa/ 'turkey' in Creek,
from a language where /l/ had become /n/ before lending the word to
Creek.  Mary Haas pointed this one out decades ago.

Anthony
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