grass (4)

noun plant

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *xá•tE

Pre-Mandan *-xąʔtE

Mandan kóxąte, kóxąʔte ‘corn’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *xá•te ~ *xą́te

Proto-Dakota

Lakota ḣaƞṫé pepe iyececa , †xąté ‘Illinois mimosa, a legume’ EB:192a

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere

Chiwere xáǰe ‘grass, herb’ [Otoe] JGT:94

Proto-Dhegiha *xá•te

Omaha-Ponca xá•de ‘hay’ [Southern Ponca] RR

Kanza/Kaw xáǰe ‘hide in tall grass’ JOD

Osage xádse , †xáce ‘grass’ LF:217a

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi satúti , †sat-úti ‘cocoa grass’ [cf. uti ‘root’] D&S:251a

General comment

There appear to be two closely related sets for ‘grass’, one with and one without nasalization. The Biloxi form above is doubtfully cognate as fricative symbolism is generally limited to verbs (including stative verbs/adjectives) and adverbs, i.e., semantically gradable terms. Finding it among nouns is suspicious but possible. It is likely that the Lakota term has been contaminated by ‘juniper, red cedar’, q.v.; ‘grass (4)’, q.v., may also have contaminated Lakota and Mandan forms of this word.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources