Biloxi nominal markers

[Rory M Larson]

John Koontz wrote:
> I suspect the marker is *e and that the *-r- reflexes occur only after
vowel-final stems.  In essence this is what the Mandan formula -(r)e
means.

> I would argue that in essence we have *-e and that it appears as *-re
after vowels (shifting to -ri in Hidatsa and -di in Biloxi) because there
is an epenthetic -r- there:

>  0 => r / V = __ e

> I'm not positive the -(d)i on nouns and the -(d)i on verbs is the same
thing.  It might be, or there might be several -(d)i's after verbs, one
nominalizing, and one declarative.

I like these ideas, John!  If we suppose that Biloxi -di is from Siouan e,
then we might be able to offer two forms of e, one for nouns and one for
verbs.

For nouns, we seem to have a generic deictic e which, at least in OP, can
be placed after a noun to sort of sum up the previous noun phrase for
clarity of feeding into the following verb, in the manner of: "My friend's
older brother HE shot a deer".

For verbs, I've been thinking for some time that there is an old
declarative e that pops up now and then in OP and other Siouan languages
I've looked at, and which, in conjunction with a preceding -a, might be
responsible for Winnebago -ire and OP -i.

So how about Biloxi -di following verbs as originally a declarative, and
-di following a noun as an emphatic summarization of the noun?  That would
probably be a little too simple for recorded Biloxi, but perhaps as a
hypothetical starting point?

Rory
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