"bow"

[David Costa]

>> The words for 'bow' got dragged into this as well, in that the Shawnee word
>> for 'bow' is /hilenahkwi/, which is literally 'ordinary wood'. And of course,
>> the Shawnee word for 'gun' is /mtekwa/ (pl. /mtekwaapali/), which derives
>> from the old 'bow' word.

> Does the plural mtekwaapali involve the *-aapy- final?  If so, does the
> singular mtekwa not?

/mtekwaapali/ is from the old 'bowstring' word (so yes it contains *-aapy-);
/mtekwa/ is the old 'tree/bow' word. For some reason they merged as a single
lexeme in Shawnee, with the meaning 'gun'. This is not regular, but Shawnee
'house' works the same way: sing. /wiikiwa/, plural /wiikiwaapali/.

The inanimate equivalent means 'tree': Shawnee /mtekwi/, plural /mteko/.

> Also, in regard to an earlier comment:

>> The other main term for the concept can be reconstructed variously as PA
>> */a?ca:pyi/ (usually 'bowstring') or */a?ta:pya/ 'bow' (the form found in
>> Eastern).

> I take it that 'bowstring' is the inanimate gender form of the stem *a?caapy-
> while 'bow' is the animate form?

Yes, */a?ca:pyi/ is inanimate, */a?ta:pya/ is animate. But the discrepancy
in the consonants is irregular.

> Am I remembering correctly that animate *me?tekw-a is (sometimes?) 'bow',
> while inanimate *me?tekw-i is 'stick'?

Not exactly. In Ojibwe, the word is /mitig/, and when animate it means
'tree', and when inanimate it means 'stick'. The same situation seems to
prevail in Potawatomi and Menominee. (As an animate possessed noun, the
Menominee word means 'bow'.)

However, Fox and Miami don't seem to do anything like that.

Dave