quail, prairie chicken

animal_bird

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *ši-o

Proto-Dakota *šiyó

Lakota šiyó ‘grouse, prairie hen’ EB:403b

Dakota šíyo ‘grouse, prairie hen’ SRR:445b

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere

Chiwere šo xą́ñe ‘prairie chicken’ GM

Hoocąk kšoo ‘prairie chicken’ KM:1912 , kšoo

Proto-Dhegiha *šiyó

Omaha-Ponca šyu , †šyo ‘prairie chicken’ JOD

Kanza/Kaw šǘttaŋa ‘prairie hen’ JOD , šǘšta ‘quail’ RR

Osage ushiṭsithe , †ošihciðe ‘startler, the quail (because of its sudden noisy and startling flight)’ LF:175a , šǫhpáze , †ošihciðe ‘quail, bobwhite’ RR

Quapaw šíšta ‘quail’ RR , šóšta ‘quail’ JOD

General comment

The DH forms are somewhat irregular, but all clearly descend from something like *šiyó, the attested Lakota form. This is not a possible Proto-Mississipi-Valley reconstruction, however, because *y is obstruentized (ž, čh) in all MVS dialects. *ši-o seems the most likely reconstruction here, though VV clusters usually generate an epenthetic r, the reflexes of which do not occur here. This has to be a word which entered the vocabularies of all of the subgroups represented here after the normal sound changes described above had run their course. Cf. DH *sǘhka ~ *síhka ‘chicken, turkey’. For another example of unexpected Hoocąk kš, v. ‘red (1b), red hawthorn’ (‘apple’).

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources