Reconstruction:Proto-Siouan-Catawban/wi-

This Proto-Siouan-Catawban 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-Siouan-Catawban

Etymology

Compare Yuchi wedi (“bovine”), wadįga (“bison”), wedza (“hog”). Lewis Ballard suggests the Yuchi prefix we-/wa- (animate prefix) may be of non-Yuchi origin.

Prefix

*wi-

  1. A classificatory prefix seen in terms denoting animals, common foods, and natural or weather-related phenomena.

Descendants

  • Proto-Siouan: *wi-hté·
    • Proto-Crow-Hidatsa: *wité·
      • Crow: bishée (“bison”)
      • Hidatsa: witée, mitée (“cow, buffalo”)
    • Proto-Mississippi-Valley: *pté·
      • Proto-Dakota: *pté
        • Lakota: pté (“buffalo”)
        • Dakota: pté (“buffalo”)
        • Assiniboine: pté (“buffalo”)
      • Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere: *sį́·te
        • Chiwere: čé, čhe·mį́ (“buffalo cow”)
        • Winnebago: cee (“cow”)
      • Proto-Dhegiha: *hté
        • Kansa: ččé
        • Omaha-Ponca: tté
        • Osage: 𐓳𐓟̋
        • Quapaw: tté

References

  • Robert Rankin, in the Handbook of North American Indians
  • Rankin (1998): "There was a second classificatory prefix, Proto-Siouan-Catawban wi-, Yuchi we-, that marked precisely three rather distinct semantic groupings in all three languages: animal names, common foodstuffs, and nature or weather-related phenomena. This strange juxtaposition is perhaps not as surprising as Lakoff's “women, fire and dangerous things”, and it may have developed from a class of non-human animates, but this particular idiosyncratic semantic grouping can scarcely be the product of independent innovation."
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