s^aaN for Sioux

[David Costa]

> Note also Miami-Illinois s^aaha and as^aaha, Fox as^aaha, Kickapoo wasaaha,
> Shawnee s^aha.  These forms suggest something like *was^aaha, I think, but the
> lack of nasalization in the final vowel
 
Ojibwe is the only Central Algonquian language that has contrastive vowel
nasalization, and there it's only word-final. So when Algonquian languages
borrowed this word from Siouan, the speakers would have just dropped the
vowel nasalization.

> seems to me to indicate that these terms have been borrowed from a Siouan
> source or sources.
> 
Almost certainly so, since these words are phonotactically rather abnormal
from the perspective of Algonquian languages.

Dave