noun
plant_part
Proto-Siouan-Catawba
Proto-Siouan
*ahkó•(re)
Proto-Crow-Hidatsa
*kakúwi
Crow
kukúwi
‘squash, pumpkin’
RG,
GG:51,
RGG:14
Hidatsa
kakúwi
‘squash, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon’
J
Pre-Mandan
Mandan
kó• ~ kó•re
‘squash’
RTC
,
kó• xté
‘pumpkin’
RTC
Proto-Mississipi-Valley
Proto-Dhegiha
*hkohkó-
Omaha-Ponca
kkokkómį
‘cucumber’
RR
Osage
ḳoḳóma
, †hkohkóma
‘cucumbers’
LF:88b
Proto-Southeastern
Proto-Biloxi-Ofo
Biloxi
kɔ•čkúyɛʔ
‘watermelon’
[cf. †čkú•ye ‘sweet’]
MRH
,
kɔ•čku•yeʔ
MS
,
ko
, †ako•(dí)
‘gourd’
D&S:171b
,
ko tckúyĕ
, †ako•(dí)
‘watermelon’
,
aḳodí
, †ako•(dí)
‘gourd cup’
General comment
Some linguists have postulated that some of these forms may be
borrowings from French. This is doubtful, however, since Mandan and Biloxi have
nearly identical forms. There is the additional possibility of
contamination of native terms from French and English. The DH forms, for
example, should not differ as they do. We seriously doubt, however, that all
the ko forms are borrowed, at least from a European language. Rather we
suspect a relationship with onomatopoeic forms based on the hollow sound of
gourds, the sort of thing that underlies *hkó-ke ‘hollow sound > stamp, stomp’ (‘make a hollow sound)’.
The accentual and vowel length patterns suggest an old prefix, here
partially preserved, as usual, in some of the Biloxi forms. Mandan and Biloxi share
*-re, and if, as C postulates, this -r- was an epenthetic glide,
then DH, Crow and Hidatsa *-w- might be similarly epenthetic, and all the
forms would more or less match. It is also possible that the Proto-Crow-Hidatsa form was
*koko- with the standard raising of short o > u; *-w- might be an
assimilation product from *r after round vowels. The various ko-
forms for cucurbits outside of Siouan, however, suggest that this etymology
will never be completely secure.