play (1)

verb social

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *warį́xE

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *wVráx-

Crow aláxshi ‘tease; tickle’ SFS, GG

Hidatsa wiráxatihkE ‘play’ J

Pre-Mandan

Mandan wįrį́x ‘to play’ RTC

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo *ani•xi

Biloxi ánĭx, ánĭxyi , †ánixi ‘play’ D&S:173b , anixyá , †ánixi ‘play ball’ D&S:173

Ofo anī´si , †aní•si ‘play’ D&S:321a, JSS , iⁿtó̄nisi , †įtó•nisi ‘make fun of, joke, play with’ D&S:325, JSS

General comment

Biloxi and Ofo lose initial labial resonants, *w- and *m- while the northern languages lose the vowel via regular syncope and retain the labial. There are numerous other examples of this, e.g., ‘water’.

Unfortunately the vowel is wrong in the putative Crow/Hidatsa cognates, so we are left with many uncertainties.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources