Omaha fricative set

[Rankin, Robert L]

> You're right!  I copied the Kaw form by mistake.  Kaw does have /ziziga/; Omaha /zizikka/.

>Is the Kaw reflex of common Dhegiha preaspirates also hp/ht/hk, as in Osage?

No, those are normally [pp, tt, kk] in Kaw, as in Omaha, Ponca and Quapaw.  So 'turkey' has to have been *zizika, with the simple /k/ that voices in Kaw, Omaha and Ponca.  This matches the Dakotan cognate and leaves the Omaha /kk/ a bit of a mystery.  I assume it comes from "contamination" from that older term that means 'chicken' in the rest of Dhegiha.

>  But Omaha does have /zaNziga/ 'flicker', with the etymologically correct form of the root.  I guess /zizikka/ is what happened to common Dhegiha *sihka in Omaha.  These various largish bird terms don't seem to really be cognate across the plains Siouan languages.  Dakotan /ziNtka-/ not only has the z/s problem compared with Dhegiha, but it also has the nasal vowel and the /tk/ cluster.  Superficially, the /tk/ looks like it should match Dhegiha /kk/ or /hk/, but, in fact, it doesn't.  The *tk cluster actually metathesizes in Dhegiha to /kt/, with means that 'chicken' should really be /sitta/, not /sikka/.

> John mentioned before that in stop clusters, the second element usually won, except when the first element was t, which usually took over in any case.  Is this a more sophisticated explanation of that observation?  
 
Mmmm, the use of "sophisticated" here reminds me of von Neumann's comment on the use of the term "elegant" in the description of mathematical explanations:  "Elegance is something best left to shoe salesmen."  (I used to be able to quote it in German.)  Actually, my explanation is more "historical", I would say.  We know that *tk  >  kt first because some of the languages preserve that stage, or an obvious reflex of it.  Chiwere gives instances.  Then, as usual, the second element of the cluster "wins" and you ultimately get *tk > kt > ht > tt.  The ht stage is Osage.  Compare 'drink'
Lakota  yatkaN   <  tk
Winn.   racgaN   <  tk
Chiwe.  rahtaN   <  kt
Omaha   dhattaN  <  kt
Kaw     yattaN   <  kt
 
I.e., MVS *tk regularly -> Early Dh. *kt -> Later Dh. *ht ?  Does MVS *tp do the same thing?  Can you offer any example words?

I think there's some tp/kp variation.  Both give Dhegiha /pp/ though, as in 'evening'.  Dakota has vairable potpaNka and potkaNka 'cranberry' (Riggs dict.)  One decent example seems to be:

Dakota ka-tpa 'to strike' 

Omaha naN-tte 'to kick'

Kaw wa-cce 'count coup'

Quapaw naN-tte  'kick'

They have different prefixes, but the roots match and suggest that tp > pt > tt.  There may be other cases but I'd have to dig through the file.

What about the 'squirrel' term?  Would that still be good?

Yes, I think so.  It's true that animal names get around a lot geographically speaking, but if there's a problem with it, it would be vowel nasalization.  It's certainly worth checking.  Actually, even though the 'chicken, turkey' terms look diffused, it would still be interesting to check them out.  I guess if Omaha lacks the word with initial /s/ that won't be possible.

> But if borrowing/diffusion can explain the 'chicken' term, I would think that a standard number term would be even easier, as a tool for trade between groups.  The *s/z/aptaN term isn't even common to Siouan outside of MVS, is it?

Yes, Ofo has it in /iftaptaN/ 'ten', with an intrusive /t/ after the /f/ as in several other Ofo words.

> Maybe these problematic s/z terms all date to a period shortly after the spread of MVS, after significant differences in pronunciation had developed between dialects, but while they were still pretty well mutually comprehensible, and while the speakers still recognized a common ethnicity.  Do we have any others?  (Trade terms?  Hunting small animals?  Spread of bow and arrow?)

I'm fresh out of examples for the moment, but there may be more.  

Bob