Reconstruction:Proto-Siouan-Catawban/wi-

This Proto-Siouan-Catawban entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Siouan-Catawban

Etymology

Compare Yuchi we-.

Prefix

*wi-

1. A classificatory prefix seen in terms denoting animals, common foods, and natural or weather-related phenomena.

Descendants

• Proto-Siouan: *wité· (“bison, buffalo”) (whence Lakota pte- (“cow”))

References

• Robert Rankin, in the Handbook of North American Indians
• Rankin (1998): "There was a second classificatory prefix, Proto-Siouan-Catawban wi-, Yuchi we-, that marked precisely three rather distinct semantic groupings in all three languages: animal names, common foodstuffs, and nature or weather-related phenomena. This strange juxtaposition is perhaps not as surprising as Lakoff's “women, fire and dangerous things”, and it may have developed from a class of non-human animates, but this particular idiosyncratic semantic grouping can scarcely be the product of independent innovation."