noun
person
Proto-Siouan-Catawba
Proto-Siouan
Proto-Mississipi-Valley
*rį́hka
Proto-Dakota
*wičhá
Lakota
wičhá
‘person’
RTC
Dakota
wičhášta
‘man’
PD:92
Assiniboine
wičhášta
‘man’
PD:92
Yanktonai
wičháša
‘man’
PD:92
Stoney
wįčhá
‘man’
NOL
,
wįčhásta
‘man’
NOL
Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere
Hoocąk
ware-nį́ka
‘worker, wageman, slang for white man’
[N.B. waré ‘work’]
KM:3432
,
warenįka, wareįka (> ware-nįk-ga)
Proto-Dhegiha
*níhka
Omaha-Ponca
níkka
‘man’
RR
Kanza/Kaw
níkka, nį́kka
‘man’
RR
Osage
níhka
‘man’
Quapaw
níkka
‘man’
[Cf. onį́ ‘gens’]
General comment
Since discovery of the Hoocąk cognate, we tend to look upon the Dakota forms as
perhaps influenced by Caddoan (Cf. Parks 1979 #14 ‘man’ (does not = person)
Arikara wí:ta, Pawnee pí:ta, Kitsai wí:ta, Wichita wí:c). These
Siouan forms are apparently related to each other, but not to ‘man, person (1)’.
Distribution of the Dakotan forms suggests that wičhášta is the older variant. JEK suggests -šta is related to the intensifier, -xta, -xča ‘real, true’. This would make wičháša ‘red man’ a folk etymology in the geographically central dialects, Teton and Yankton-Yanktonai.