break cord

verb physical_contact_deformation

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *-psákE

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *-hcakE < *-CcakE

Crow -ttachi, alá- ‘be cold’ RG, GG:8 , -ttachi, dá- ‘break with mouth; brk. off by biting’ RGG:26, GG:43 , -ttachi, dú- ‘break apart’ RG, GG:45 , -ttachí, ala- ‘break with foot’ RG, GG:8 , -ttachi, óo- ‘break by shooting, by projectile’ RG

Hidatsa -hcakE, ará- ‘severed, broken off by fire or intense cold’ [ra] J , -hcakE, ná- ‘chew sth. off’ J , -hcakE, nú- ‘snap, break by pulling’ J , -hcákE, ara- ‘break with foot, e.g. a string’ J , -hcakE, pá- ‘slice, cut’ J , -cakE, nak- ‘chip, chop, split’ J

Pre-Mandan

Mandan -pšak, wa- ‘open with a point’ H:153 , -pšak, ru- ‘unscrew, untie s.t.’ H:153 , -pšak, pa- ‘cut s.t. open’ H:153 , -pšak, ka- ‘rip s.t. open’ H:153 , kirúpšakoʔš ‘he untied it’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley

Proto-Dakota

Lakota -psag, ka- ‘break violently’ EB:287b, EJ , kapsákA ‘break a rope or string; for a string to break’ EJ , -psaka, khiwó- ‘shoot off in the middle e.g. a cord’ EB:312a , -psáka, na- ‘break e.g. a cord with the foot, to break something in two with the foot’ EB:355b , -psápsaka, na- ‘break in different places e.g. a string’ EB:355b , -psáka, pa- ‘break or tear in two by pressure or by sitting e.g. in a swing’ EB:432b , -psáka, wa- ‘cut off, e.g. string or cord with a knife; to saw or cut something in two with a saw or knife’ EB:548b , -psáka, ya- ‘tear a thing, e.g. a string, in two with the mouth’ EB:626a , -psáka, yu- ‘break or pull in two e.g. a string.’ EB:648a, EJ

General comment

The Crow and Hidatsa forms may go with ‘break cord > break long things’ rather than here. Mandan rapsak ‘chew sth.’ (H) shows this root in more than one fricative grade.

DH merges both *ks and *ps clusters to s, so the many DH verbs of breaking ending in -se may be cognate with either or both Proto-Siouan sets. It may be possible to determine cognacy by semantics alone in these cases. Here however DH lacks the root extension, -ke that might render some of the forms clearly cognate. Ordinarily sets with initial ps clusters in Mandan and/or Lakota are from Proto-Siouan *wV-sV, i.e., the p- is the reflex of earlier wa- which probably marked an indefinite (transitive) object and has undergone the usual syncope. Here, evidence from OVS, which often retains the a- but loses the *w-, is lacking.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources