Pa Snuta (Eggheads?)

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 7 Jul 2005, Rankin, Robert L wrote:

> If you check under 'pecan' in Quapaw you'll find the more expected
> cognate, /stotta/.  It is the 'oblong nut'.  Kansa uses /sceje/ in a
> similar compound, even tho' it has a stative verb /stotta/.  I wasn't
> aware that Quapaw apparently had doublets (with tt/kk) from older -tk-.
> That's a nice find.

I looked further on Bob's suggestions and found

Qu sto'tta     in wata'stotta 'pecan'

I also found for Kaw

Ks sto'sta     in wada'stosta wac^hiN'
                  'a comic dance performed wearing masks'

We already had sto'sta 'oval, elliptical (JOD), pear shaped (MR)', but the
usual term for pecan is something else.  This does seem to be 'pecan
dance' in some sense.

Following Bob's hint, I also found previous unnoitced (by me)

Os sto'sta     in wata'stosta 'pecan'

I looked for additional *sroh-ka forms without any luck.

I did find *srot-ka in Biloxi

Bi "sditka', sdutka" 'be elliptical'

I checked in Mandan without finding anything, but I did find these Crow
and Hidatsa forms that may be relevant.  Fo rthe sense 'narrow', see Wi
soro'c^ 'narrow hand high, like pottery shape; be cone-shaped'.

Cr chilo'ochi 'slender, slim'
Cr chilu'chi 'narrow (strip)'
Cr chua' 'narrow'

Hi "tsua" 'narrow'   (and "tsua(dsi)" 'narrowish')

The first two forms, which Randy in his list suggested might be doublets,
seem to reflect *srot(e).  The second might be a contraction of *sroh(a),
i.e., *sroha > PCH *ciro(h)a, ciru(h)a > cua.  I'm not  sure if there's
any parallel for loss of -ir- in Dorsey's Law clusters.

However, there was also this pair:

Cr chiwu'sa 'brains'
Hi "tsuata" 'brains'

These seem to suggest PCH *ciwuata 'brains'.  However, I'm not sure if
there is any connection to be drawn to 'narrow', but perhaps the
similarity here might help explain Dakotan (ie)slota, slol(ya).

Incidentally, I've located an additional 'know' form in Dakotan, a Santee
form in Riggs.

Sa sdoc^a' 'to know'  (also sdonya')

I'm not sure how to account for c^ (c^h?) here.  Maybe this is really
sdotya', a variant of sdonya'?

Since Bob Rankin suggested *ratkaN 'to drink' as a tk set:

Da yatkAN'

OP dhattaN' (rest of Dhegiha analogous)

IO rahtaN'  (or perhaps it should be rahdaN' notationally)

Wi rac^gaN"

Apparently this set doesn't extend outside of Mississippi Valley.