breathe

verb physical_somatic_function

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *rį́•-ha(-he)

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *iríahe < *irí-(h)a-he

Crow ilíahi RG, GG:87

Hidatsa iríahe ‘breathe’ J , iríahi

Pre-Mandan

Mandan rį́•heʔš ‘he’s breathing’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *rį-ha

Proto-Dakota *nį(-yĄ)

Lakota niyá ‘breathe’ [waníya 1st singular] RTC , niyĄ ‘rescue’ [waníye ‘I breathe’] EJ , niyá [waníya ‘I rescue’]

Dakota niya ‘breathe’

Stoney nį PAS

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *nį́•ha

Chiwere nį́•ha, nį́•hą RR

Hoocąk nįįhá ‘chant, breathe; v.; breathing, n.’ KM:2320 , nįįha

Proto-Dhegiha *nįǫ < **nį + ʔǫ ‘do’ RR

Omaha-Ponca niu MAS:24

Osage nióⁿ , †nįǫ́ ‘breath’ LF:109b

Quapaw onią́hidé ~ oníąhíde ‘breathe’ JOD , oníǫkdázi ‘sigh’ JOD

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo *nįx-

Biloxi níxta ‘breath’ D&S:237a , nixtadí ‘breathe’

Ofo nạshī´hi , †nəší•hi ‘breathe’ D&S:326b, JSS

General comment

Cf. ‘alive’. Crow/Hidatsa initial i- may have been added after the model of ‘alive’. MRS and Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere differ for length in both this set and ‘alive’. Proto-Biloxi-Ofo is definitive for length in ‘alive’; thus we reconstruct length in both sets.

That h survives in Hoocąk/Chiwere indicates that it is not from -he, a supposition supported by the fact that Crow/Hidatsa have added -he after the -ha of ‘breathe’. That Chiwere/Hoocąk have oral ha and that Lakota has y rather than n as a replacement for h argue that the second syllable was indeed oral, not nasal. Nasalization in Dakotan and DH seems to have spread from į, with the resulting final ą subsequently reinterpreted as ǫ (‘do’), a commonly postposed auxiliary particle in verbs. Biloxi/Ofo are opaque beyond the root nį. Mandan verb forms with final e often signal old compounds with monosyllabic roots, suggesting that the -he might be separable.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources