yellow > tawny

verb perceptual_visual_color

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *ší•(-re)

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *ší•re

Crow ší•li ‘yellow’

Hidatsa ší•re ~ šíʔre ‘brown, tan, tawny’ J , ší•ri ~ šíʔiri

Pre-Mandan *si•re

Mandan sí•re ‘yellow’ RTC

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *ží•

Proto-Dakota

Lakota ží ‘golden, rusty’ RTC

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *ží•

Chiwere yi RR

Hoocąk žíi ‘brown’ KM:4015 , zii

Proto-Dhegiha *ží ~ *žíhi

Omaha-Ponca ží ‘pink’ MAS:137

Kanza/Kaw ží, žíhi RR

Osage zhíhi , †žíhi ‘reddish, pink’ LF:222b

Quapaw žihí ‘reddish yellow’ [ži] JOD

General comment

Proto-Siouan had fricative ablaut: cf. ‘yellow’ and ‘yellow > brown’. The Mandan form given here corresponds regularly, but the semantics assigns the meaning ‘yellow’ and šír is assigned ‘tawny’. Fricative symbolism for this set of roots evidently does not occur in OVS. This fact plus the Catawba form may imply that *si• was original and the others derived.

Other languages

  • Cf. proto Keresan -sdyIrI.
Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources