tail (2) > bird tail

physical_somatic_body_part_animal

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *í•pi (?)

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *í•pi

Crow íipi ‘bird’s tail feathers’ GG:79, RGG:3

Hidatsa í•pi ‘bird’s tail’ J

Pre-Mandan

Mandan ip ‘bird tail, tail feather’ H:89

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *í•pi

Proto-Dakota upí

Lakota sitúpi ‘tail feathers’ RTC

Dakota upí ‘bird tail’ SRR

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere

Hoocąk hiwí KM:1126 , hiwi ?

Proto-Dhegiha *(hį)-üpe

Omaha-Ponca xitha iⁿbe , †įbe ‘tail feather’ [eagle + X] MAS:75

Kanza/Kaw ǘ•be, íbe ‘bird’s tail’ RR

Osage iⁿ´be , †į́pe ‘the tail of a bird’ LF:74b , oⁿ´be , †ǫ́pe ‘buttocks; tail of a bird’ LF:121b

Quapaw íbe JOD

General comment

In Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan this root is in homonymic clash with ‘copulate (1)’. There has been compounding with, or contamination from, hį ‘hair, fur, feathers’ in DH and possibly other languages. The final vowel in DH has undergone analogical change to join the widespread set of -e stems. The back vowel in various forms is unexplained, but cf. ‘tail (1)’. We reconstruct *i• in Proto-Siouan under the assumption that sporadic rounding before a labial obstruent is the more likely reformation. Cf. ‘guts, intestines’.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources