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Proto-Dakotan Swadesh list word #77
*Hitsa, tooth

All the words for “tooth” are similar to one another, and to the words for “mouth” (*Iha), but only in Yesan have the two words coalesced, or at least we don’t know of a different word for “tooth” from “mouth”.
In most of them, “tooth” is only slightly different, usually /Hii/ with an H, as opposed to just /Ii/ for “mouth”.

The signs of the second syllable are still in Ofo /Iifha/, Biloxi /Iinsu/, Hidatsa /Iisha/ and Crow /Iihta/. The eastern and northern groups often share conservative features dropped in the central Mississipi valley group, so these words could all come from *Hitsa (*Hiitsa) or similar.

Rankin derived all of the shorter /Hii/ words from his Proto-Siouan *Ihi (*Iihii), “tooth, edge, point”, but he traces the four longer words to different reconstruction, *Ihsa “tooth”.

1 WOCCON ?
2 CATAWBA /Yep/
3 YESAN /Iih/
4 OFO /Iifha/
5 BILOXI /Iinsu/
6 QUAPAW /Hii/
7 OMAHA /Hii/
8 KAW /Hii/
9 OSAGE /Hii/
10 HOCHAK /Hii/
11 CHIWERE /Hii/
12 MANDAN /Hii’/
13 DAKOTA /Hii/
14 NAKODA /Hii/
15 HIDATSA /Iisha/
16 CROW /Iihta/

 

Proto-Dakotan Swadesh list word #78
*Deezhii’, tongue

All of the different words for “tongue” here are obviously from the same original word, apart from Catawban, which shares only a smaller percentage of the original language’s vocabulary, than the others do.

Each subgroup works neatly into its own path; using my own methods, I traced the original to *Deezhii’.
For example, only Mandan has an ending in -k, if this ending sound was lost in all the others, it was more likely just a glottal stop that hardened into k in one direction (Mandan) and dropped out in all the rest.

Rankin, using the same data but different methods, obtained the proto-SIouan form for “tongue” as *Ireshi (*/Iireeshii/)

1 WOCCON ?
2 CATAWBA /Somus/ <?
3 YESAN /Nechii/ <*Nyechii <*Dechii <*Dezhii <*Deezhii’
4 OFO /Ileechii/ <*Nyechii ^
5 BILOXI /Yechii/ <*Nyechii ^
6 QUAPAW /Deeze/ <*Deezee <*Deezhii’
7 OMAHA /Theezee/ <*Deezee ^
8 KAW /Leezee/ <*Deezee ^
9 OSAGE /Theedhee/ <*Deezee ^
10 HOCHAK /Reezii/ <*Reezhii <*Reezhii’ <Deezhii’
11 CHIWERE /Reethe/ <*Reezhe <*Reezhii ^
12 MANDAN /Reesiik/ <*Reesii’ <*Reezhii’ ^
13 DAKOTA /Tchezhii/ <*Chezhii <*Thezhii <*Dezhii ^
14 NAKODA /Chezhii/ ^
15 HIDATSA /Deezii/ <*Deezhii <*Deezhii’
16 CROW /Deeshii/ <*Deezhii ^

 

Proto-Dakotan Swadesh list word #79
*Tsuchakee, fingernail

The terms for “fingernail” are undoubtedly connected with those for “hand” (from Proto-Dakotan *Chakii, word #83). In Biloxi, /Chakii/ means both “hand” and “fingernail”.

The Yesan word for fingernail /Chuchag/, with the article /Chuchakii/, was recorded by Hale as “Tcutcag” (where c represents /sh/, and Tc represents /ch/); he also recorded the article form as “Tsutsaki”, which suggests this word in Yesan might have been pronounced /Chuchag/ – /Chuchakii/ as well as /Tsutsag/ – /Tsutsakii/ with some ambivalence between <ch> and <ts> sounds.

Along with Yesan, the Nakoda (aka Assiniboine) /Tashagee/, and Mandan /Unka’hee/ also seem to preserve the first syllable before *-chakee, so I took *Tsu- as the balance between these three surviving vestiges of the original first syllable (/Chu-/, /Ta-/ and /Un-/): because two out of 3 have /-u-/ for the vowel, and two out of three have unvoiced dentals at the start.

1 WOCCON ?
2 CATAWBA /Hiche/
3 YESAN /Chuchag/ <*Tsuchagii <*Tsuchakii <*Tsuchakee
4 OFO /Tanawosii/ (different word?)
5 BILOXI / Chakii/ <*Tsuchakii
6 QUAPAW /Shake/ <*Shakee <*Tashakee <*Tushakee <*Tsuchakee
7 OMAHA /Shagee/ <*Chagee <*Tsuchagee
8 KAW /Shagee/ ^
9 OSAGE /Shagee/ ^
10 HOCHAK /Shak/ <*Shake ^
11 CHIWERE /Shage/ <*Shake ^
12 MANDAN /Unka’hee/ <*Unkagee <*Tsunchagee <*Tsuchagee
13 DAKOTA /Shakee/ ^
14 NAKODA /Tashagee/ <*Tashakee ^
15 HIDATSA /Shakiichpu/
16 CROW /Iitaxpu/

Rankin considers the words I have from *Tsuchakee “fingernail” and *Chakii “hand” to all be from the same root word in Proto-Siouan, *Ishake “hand, claws, nails”, and does not even distinguish a separate term for “nails from “hand”.

 

Proto-Dakotan Swadesh list word #80
*Shiha, foot

The terms for “foot” surely had a common ancestor, something like *Shiiha or *Iishiiha. Taking the forms from *Iishiiha as another “back-formation” from the pronouns for “my” and “your” (*Miishiiha, my foot, *Diishiiha, your foot), that leaves us with *Shiiha (*Shiha) as the original part meaning “foot”.

If Rankin’s version is correct though, the original word for foot was *Isi.

There is also a curious parallel in all three proto-language families of the woodlands, I have reconstructed the Proto-Algonquian word for foot as *Mesiit, and the Proto-Iroquoian as *Ohsiita, and all of the languages in these families have similar words for “foot”, but then again this may be coincidence.

1 WOCCON ?
2 CATAWBA /Yiip/
3 YESAN /Iishii/
4 OFO /Ifhii/
5 BILOXI /Sii/
6 QUAPAW /Sii/ ^
7 OMAHA /Sii/ ^
8 KAW /Sii/ ^
9 OSAGE /Dhii/
10 HOCHAK /Sii/ ^
11 CHIWERE /Thii/
12 MANDAN /Shii/
13 DAKOTA /Siiha/
14 NAKODA /Siiha/ ^
15 HIDATSA /Iitsii/
16 CROW /Iichii/

William Meuse

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