humpbacked

verb physical_somatic

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan

Proto-Mississipi-Valley

Proto-Dakota

Lakota t’ū´ġa , †thúɣA ‘hunchbacked; a hump or hunch’ EB:501a, EJ

Proto-Dhegiha *tʔóxa

Omaha-Ponca ðitʔúxa-bi , †tʔóxa ‘raised in a hump’

Kanza/Kaw cʔóxa ‘humped, bent, humpbacked’ RR

Osage a´baḳuṭ’oxa , †tʔoxa ‘humpback’ LF:5b

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi toⁿxka´ , †tǫx-ká ‘humped, broken backed’ D&S:279b

General comment

While there is nothing directly reconstructible here, there is clearly a sound-symbolic relationship between the forms found in the represented subgroups. One is reminded of Sapir’s famous paper on abnormal speech types in Nootka.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources