think (1)

verb psychic_cognition

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *e_yehe

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *(h)iríha-cE

Crow hilíači GG:48

Hidatsa iríacE ‘think, opine’ J , iríaci

Pre-Mandan *é_reh-

Mandan érehoʔš ‘he wanted it, thought about it’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *é_re ~ *e_yé

Proto-Dakota

Lakota ečhá ‘think’ B&D:102

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *i_ré

Chiwere ilé ‘think’ GM

Hoocąk hi_giré ‘think of’ KM:845 , higire (hi<gi>re) ‘think, hope ?’ KM:1016 , hi_ré , hire

Proto-Dhegiha *é_re

Omaha-Ponca e_ðegǫ ‘think’ JOD, MAS:58

Kanza/Kaw hą́_ye ‘think, suppose’ [cf. ‘dream’] JOD

Osage e´the , †éðe ‘think’ [conj. éki_ðe as an R-stem] LF:41b

Quapaw í_nįą ‘think what precedes’ [< *ídi + ʔą] JOD

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi yihí, yuhí, yŭ´hi , †yihi ‘think’ [regular conjugation] D&S:292a, EB

Ofo hĕ´tani , †hétani ‘think’ [regular conjugation] D&S:323b

General comment

There have been several restructurings of this interesting verb. Hoocąk and Quapaw have replaced *e- with what appears to be instrumental í-. In Kanza/Kaw the verb has been contaminated by the semantically related ‘dream’, q.v.

Dakota and Biloxi suggest a reconstruction with *y, the other languages show reflexes of *r. Dakota in particular has a relic conjugated form, 1s epčá (defective), which makes *y the more attractive reconstruction. In Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan *r and *y normally fall together as r, and since, in the more southerly languages *r and *y seem to fall together in certain consonant clusters (those created in 1st and 2nd person conjugated forms), the neutralization product, *r, may have been generalized to 3rd person forms. So the most probable reconstruction is with the more exceptional *y. Cf. ‘think (3)’. The Ofo form may simply have lost the main portion of the verb stem, leaving only the extension shown elsewhere in Mandan and Biloxi.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources