Locatives and wa- problems.

[Rankin, Robert L.]

> I think that portmanteau is common across MVS, though I don’t fully understand the phonology.

Yes, it's irregular.

> Dick Carter worked it out on the board for me for Lakhota /chi-/ once when he was teaching at UNL in the 1990s.  He was pleased with himself, but went so fast he left my head spinning.

First person *wa is missing in action.  Second person *yi turns up regularly in Lakota as chi because PSI *y becomes aspirated ch in Lakota.  This irregular portmanteau is a good part of the evidence for considering the second person historically *y, not r-  Irregular morphology retains the more conservative pronominal.

> In Omaha, the corresponding morpheme is /wi(p)/, which again I don’t really understand the derivation of.

First person *wa plus second person *yi contracts to wi.  And, again, the irregular morphology retains the conservative form -- this time of the 1st person.  The W was lost everywhere else in Dhegiha.

Bob

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