Irrealis in Siouan

[Rankin, Robert L]

I can't think of anything that would be fully cognate right offhand.  There's the /hi/ that is part of causative *hi_(r)e, where the (r) is epenthetic.  JEK has suggested that this is a complementizer of some kind.  I'll let him explain the details, as I don't know where else /hi/ might occur as such.
 
Closer semantically is */iN/, which occurs compounded with irrealis */-kte/ in Dakotan and Winnebago.  Apparently it also occurs without /kte/ in Omaha and perhaps other languages and has some sort of irrealis meaning.  This is not properly cognate with Biloxi /hi/ because of the oral vowel in the latter.  The /h/ could be explained as a Biloxi reflex of /?/, as in /hoNni/ 'be, do'.  The Omaha use of /iN/ has been the subject of earlier correspondence on this list that can be found in the archives at Linguist List.  
 
That's the best I can do.
 
Bob

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From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu on behalf of David Kaufman
Sent: Tue 5/29/2007 11:47 AM
To: Siouan List
Subject: Irrealis in Siouan


Hi Siouanists:
 
I'm looking into a Biloxi particle (perhaps for another paper) which is 'hi'.  This seems to be a type of "irrealis" marker occurring in future, past, and hortatory situations.  Einaudi discussed it in terms of "hortatory," but it appears far more than in the contexts that she mentioned.  AND, I've noticed its usage seems to parallel that of a couple of other Native languages I'm familiar with: Rumsen (Ohlone) and Zoque (Mexico), in which an "irrealis" particle seems to indicate something happening "not in the here and now," meaning it can occur in past, future, or conditional situations.
 
I'm wondering if anyone has studied this phenomenon in other Siouan languages (or geographically close languages like Caddo or Muskogean), and, for that matter, across Native American languages in general, since I'm seeing similar usages in 3 completely unrelated language families.
 
Thanks.
 
Dave
 
 

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