negative (1), dubitative

n/a

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *ku

Proto-Mississipi-Valley

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *-kú-

Chiwere š-kú-ñį ‘not’ RR

Hoocąk š-gų́-nį ‘weak dubitative’ , šgųnį, gųnį

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi ku- ‘part of many negative sentences’

General comment

Cf. ‘negative (2)’, ‘negative (3)’. ku is clearly a correlative, similar to Tutelo ki- (HH:28,30), and Hoocąk ke- cf. Lk.. These various correlative prefixes are functionally the same, but derive historically from various sources, presumably deictics or demonstratives which have come to mark off clauses.

Hoocąk/Chiwere forms are clearly segmentable historically. Cf. Dakota -š-ni neg, Biloxi bipartite negative and the DH sibilant negative. Hoocąk nasalization is probably a product of long association with -nį Assiniboine/Stoney show similar aberrant nasalization in the semantically related šį Lack of attestation in most languages makes it unclear the extent to which *ku was associated with negation.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources