dig > scratch

verb physical_contact_manipulation

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *kʔé(-re)

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *kÉʔ

Crow čikEÉ ‘scratch’ [< *ki + x ‘possessive’] RG

Hidatsa kEʔ ‘dig, scratch’ J , keʔe

Pre-Mandan

Mandan kéʔroʔš ‘dig’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *kʔé

Proto-Dakota *kʔA´

Lakota kʔA´ ‘dig’ RTC

Dakota ḳa , †kʔa ‘dig’ WM:49b

Stoney kʔá ~ khá PAS

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *kʔé

Chiwere kʔé W:240a

Hoocąk kʔée ‘dig’ KM:1724 , k’ee

Proto-Dhegiha *kʔé

Omaha-Ponca ʔé ‘dig’ RTC , baʔé ‘dig’ RR

Kanza/Kaw kʔe ‘dig, hoe’ RR

Osage ḳ’e , †kʔe ‘dig’ LF:84b

Quapaw kʔe ‘dig with a grubbing hoe’ JOD, RR

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo *kʔé•(-ri)

Biloxi kĕ, kĕdí , †ke ‘dig’ D&S:207b

Ofo āk‹é , †a•khé ‘to plant’ D&S:319b, JSS , khé̄we , †khé•we ‘to plow’ D&S:325b, JSS

Proto-Catawba

Catawba witəki’are ‘dig potatoes’ FGS , -ʔare ‘dig’ KS

General comment

Here again Ofo shows an initial vowel that is unsupported in MRS and Biloxi, and once again it seems to be part of the Ofo reflex of Proto-Siouan *Cʔ. Here, the expected ə is obscured by the presence of the apparent locative prefix, a-. An additional problem here is that DS (i.e. JOD) do not mark the initial stop in the Biloxi reflex as lenis. Cf. ‘die’, ‘give’, which have the expected lenis stops. Vowel length is indeterminate because there are questions about its reflexes in the languages that show it. Hidatsa and Mandan, for example, level glottal paradigms so that sometimes inherited glottalized stops (regular only in third person) appear throughout the paradigm, sometimes are absent throughout the paradigm, and (rarely) are preserved in their regular distribution. This verb in contrast with ‘die’ suggests that, when the glottal is lost, the vowel is lengthened in both Mandan and Hidatsa.

Glottals are always lost in Crow, with lengthening and usually with rising pitch. The two roots *kʔa ‘scrape’ and *kʔe ‘dig’ have merged phonologically in Dakotan. Cf. ‘scrape > dig, scratch’

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources