Reconstruction:Proto-Athabaskan/dəkʼ

This Proto-Athabaskan entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Athabaskan

Alternative reconstructions

  • *də̓kʸʼ (Young and Morgan 1992)
  • *tʼukʼ (Vaida 2022)

Etymology

Cognate with Eyak -tʼikʼ and Tlingit tʼúk.

On the basis of the above forms, Vaida reconstructs a Proto-Na-Dene form *dewk, which he compares with Proto-Yeniseian *dewk (“to shoot an arrow, hurl a projectile”).

Young and Morgan (1992) reconstruct a pre-Proto-Athabaskan form *də̓kʼ, but a PA form *də̓kʸʼ.

Root

*dəkʼ

  1. to shoot an arrow
  2. to sting (of an insect)
  3. to strike with a sharp pointed object

Descendants

  • Northern Athabaskan:
    • Ahtna: dicʼ
    • Lower Tanana: dek
    • Tanacross: dhekdeyh (“I shot it”)
  • Southern Athabaskan:

References

  • Young, Robert; Morgan, William; Midgette, Sally (1992), Analytical lexicon of Navajo, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, →ISBN, page 135
  • Fortescue, Michael; Vajda, Edward (2022), Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 331
  • Kari, James et al. (2024), Kari, James, editor, Lower Tanana Dene Dictionary, Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, →ISBN, page 117
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