Ablaut et al

[Rankin, Robert L]

Bruce,

This is indeed an interesting topic.  There is a close correlation between Shaw's (and Carter's, etc.) Dakotan "consonant-final stems" and stems where the other Siouan languages have long vowels.  The rule seems to have been:  If the 1st syllable is long, it is accented; if it is short, accent the 2nd syllable.  Or, it could be phrased in terms of morae.  This begs the question whether or not Dakota had final vowels in the initial accent words.  I'm off this afternoon on a short trip up to Omaha and Council Bluffs and will return to this issue when I get back.  

Best,

Bob

________________________________________
From: Siouan Linguistics [SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu] on behalf of shokooh Ingham [shokoohbanou at YAHOO.CO.UK]
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 7:23 AM
To: SIOUAN at listserv.unl.edu
Subject: Ablaut et al

--- On Mon, 29/8/11, rankin at KU.EDU <rankin at KU.EDU> wrote:

Bob,
This is in reply to your earlier message , where you sent your article on Mississipi Valley Siouan "Ablaut".  Thanks very much for that.   I found it very interesting and noticed that you mentioned Shaw's work on Dakota phonology, which I read many years ago, there being a copy of it in the SOAS library.  One thing which interested me in Shaw was her explanation of the exceptional initial stress in certain disyllabic stems, káǧa  'to make' being one I think. She posits an earlier monosyllabic, final consonantal form for these stems such as kaǧ- . I have never seen this discussed much and wondered what other Siouanists thought about it.  It seems like a very neat analysis and parallels the argument of Greenberg about Semitic lexical stems which are now disyllabic in the majority such as katab 'to write'.  He suggests that Semitic stems were originally monosyllabic (in fact bisonsonantal) and that the second syllable (or the third consonant depending on
 how you look at it) is a later addition allowing for lexical expansion, an initial qat- 'cut' giving later qata', qataf, qatam, qasar and others all realtable to the idea of 'cutting'.  The other advantage is that it makes Semitic stems look more like Indo-European ones, which is attractive.
Without wishing to appear to be talking Nostratic, I do like the idea of original monosyllabic stems, but of course it does get into difficult ground as to how far back you think you can go.  I wonder whether it holds up in other Siouan languages.
Bruce