moist (1), soft, wet

verb perceptual

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *Ró•(-he)(-ka)

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *irú(-ka)

Crow ilúka ‘meat’ RG, GG:88, RGG:104 , irúššiši ‘meat, fresh’ GG:88 , ilússhishi

Hidatsa iru ‘flesh of, meat of’ AWJ , irúka ‘dried meat, jerky’ AWJ , irúkšitE ‘(fresh) meat’ AWJ

Pre-Mandan

Mandan óro ‘fruit, seed, nut, meat, acorn’ RH:129

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *Ró•h-ka

Proto-Dakota *Ró

Lakota thaló ‘fresh meat’ RTC , ločhį́ ‘be hungry’ RTC , lo ‘soft, tender, moist stuff’ EJ

Dakota do ‘food, moist, soft’ SRR:108b , dó

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *Ró•(-khe)

Chiwere tó•khe ‘damp’ RR

Otoe dó•khe ‘damp’ RR , ulóðe ‘damp’ GMsf

Hoocąk tooké ‘be wet’ KM:3133 , tooke

Proto-Dhegiha *Róhka

Omaha-Ponca nókka ‘wet’ RR

Kanza/Kaw dókka ‘wet’ RR

Osage dóḳa , †tóhka ‘damp, wet, moist’ LF:38a

Quapaw tókka ‘moist’ RR

Proto-Southeastern

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo

Biloxi kŭdotcí, kûdótci , †kudoči ‘wet, muddy’ D&S:216a

General comment

Cf. ‘flesh’ for a possible doublet. Vowel length, accent and the presence of *R all suggest a missing initial syllable that is not represented in any of the reflexes. There is clear evidence for the presence of *-he in MVS, and equally clear evidence for its absence in Crow/Hidatsa and Mandan. We suspect that the *-he was absent in the noun (‘meat’) but present in the stative verb (‘damp’), as Proto-Siouan *-he is predominantly a verbal suffix.

Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources