dance

verb social_culture

Proto-Siouan-Catawba

Proto-Siouan *ri•h-ší

Proto-Crow-Hidatsa *riššÉ

Crow dišší ‘dance’ RG, GG:44, RGG:61

Hidatsa riššÉ ‘dance’ J , nišší

Proto-Mississipi-Valley *wahší

Proto-Dakota *wa_čhí

Lakota wa_čhí ‘dance’ RTC

Dakota waci , †wa_čhí ‘dance’ WM:44a

Stoney wačhí ‘dance’ PAS

Sioux Valley wačhí ‘dance’ PAS

Proto-Hoocąk-Chiwere *wa_ší

Chiwere wa•_ší ‘dance’ RR

Hoocąk waší ‘dance’ KM:3485 , waši

Proto-Dhegiha *wa_čhí

Omaha-Ponca wachígaxe , †wa_čhí ‘dance-make’ MAS:55

Kanza/Kaw wa_čhį́ ‘dance’ RR

Osage wachį́ ‘dance’ RR

Proto-Southeastern *-čhí

Proto-Biloxi-Ofo *ri•čhi

Biloxi ditcí , †dičí ‘dance’ D&S:183b

Ofo lī´tchi , †lí•čhi ‘dance’ D&S:326a, JSS

Proto-Tutelo-Saponi

Tutelo wāgētš’í’i , †wa•ke•čhíʔi ‘dance’ ES , wagitçi; ketçi , †wa•ke•čhíʔi N, H

Proto-Catawba

Catawba bari ‘dance’ PV:19

General comment

We believe that we may be dealing with a compound in this form, perhaps something like **rí•he + **ši, with meanings of the constituents unknown, although the Catawba form suggests that the meaning of the first element may have been ‘dance’. This compound would produce *rí•hši in Proto-Siouan, similar to the forms found in Proto-Crow-Hidatsa and Proto-Biloxi-Ofo, assuming that **hš > *čh in Proto-Biloxi-Ofo. Prefixing *wa- ‘absolutive’ in Proto-Mississipi-Valley would have produced the trisyllabic *warí•hši; simplification to the preferred disyllabic structure of lexical roots (with subsequent loss of r from its initial position in the resulting cluster) could have produced *wahší, with further reductions in the descendant languages.

Osage/Kanza/Kaw nasalization is irregular, but may be explained in terms of the cognate Omaha-Ponca form. Numeral terms meaning ‘do once, do twice’, etc., in DH are formed by suffixing ǫ, a reflex of Proto-Dhegiha *ʔǫ ‘do, make’, to the basic number. In the process, the ǫ frequently fuses with the final vowel of the number so that, e.g., †nǫbá + †ʔǫ > nǫbą́ ‘twice’, but †ðą́•bðį + †ʔǫ > ðá•bðį ‘thrice’. The same process may have taken place here, †wačhí + †ʔǫ giving wačhį́. Omaha-Ponca uses gá•ɣe, the modern verb ‘make’ to form dance and may be thought of as a modern calque of the historical form with reflexes of an analogous calque occurring in Kanza/Kaw/Osage. Of all the Siouan languages for which the term is attested, only Mandan and Quapaw have replaced it (with rą́ʔpE and ožá respectively).

Other languages

  • Yuchi:†goštįči LB
Language Cognate Phonetic Siouan Meaning Comment Sources