separate > forked

verb physical_contact_manipulation

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *šąh + ka < *šą́he

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *SahkV

Crow sáhka ‘opening, gap’ RGG:98

Hidatsa šahki ‘gap’ J , cahki ‘full of holes’ J

Proto-Mississipi-Valley

Proto-Dhegiha

Kanza/Kaw oížą́kka ‘fork in a road or stream; mouth of a stream’ RR

Proto-Southeastern *čąk-

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi tcáⁿxkoⁿní, kutcáⁿxkoⁿni , †čą́k- ‘be forked’ D&S:262b

Proto-Tutelo-Saponi

Tutelo ogitcĕñkai, ogi´tciñka´i , †-čąk- ‘forked, branching, spreading out’ HW

General comment

Tutelo nasal ę in its various guises, eⁿ, eñ, etc., is the twentieth century reflex of what was written by Hale and Dorsey as nasal ą with aⁿ, añ, etc. Apparently the bilingual Cayuga speakers used by Hewitt, Sapir and Frachtenberg as Tutelo informants simply substituted the nearest Cayuga equivalent. It is quite consistent. As far as we know it does not vary or alternate with į. Note that the Crow and Hidatsa sets recorded for the non-nasalized equivalents may, of course come from either the nasal or non-nasal set; there is no way of knowing which. (Cf. ‘split (7)’.) The Kanza/Kaw form bears a suffix o-í-žąk-ka, which accounts for the geminate in that language. Biloxi k > x before k. The Biloxi form would have to be analyzed as čąx- ‘forked’, k(i) ‘reflexive’, ǫnį ‘do’ also apparently a past tense auxiliary in Biloxi. Preaspiration in the Crow and Hidatsa forms is also presumably due to a k-initial suffix. Hidatsa cahki represents the s grade of the root.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources