Reconstruction:Proto-Algonquian/-θkani

This Proto-Algonquian 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-Algonquian

Alternative forms

*-ɬkani (alternative orthography)

Etymology

From Proto-Algic *wʔeɬkan, whence also Wiyot watkerat (“bone”)^[1] and Yurok 'wrhlkr' (“bone”). The term was always possessed, and in some languages (including Yurok) the third-person prefix (*weʔ-) was incorporated into the stem.

Noun

*-θkani

bone, leg
*neθkani (“my bone”)

*weθkani (“her or his bone”)

Descendants

Plains Algonquian:
- Blackfoot: okh-kin (“bone”)
- Arapaho: hix
- Cheyenne: he'ko (“bone, leg”)
Central Algonquian:
- Cree: miskan / ᒥᐢᑲᐣ (miskan, “bone”)
- Menominee: ohka·n (“bone”)
- Ojibwe: -kan (“bone”) (nikan (“my bone”), gikan (“your bone”))
- Fox (Sauk): ahkani (“bone”)
- Shawnee: hohkani (“his bone”)
- Miami: (ni)hkani (“(my) bone, (my) leg”)
Eastern Algonquian:
- Abenaki: (m)skan (“bone”)
- Mohegan-Pequot: -skan (“bone”)
- Unami: xkàn (“bone”)

References

Siebert 1975
Ives Goddard, Algonquian, Wiyot, and Yurok, in Linguistics and Anthropology: in Honor of C. F. Voegelin →ISBN
David Costa, Shawnee Noun Plurals, in Anthropological Linguistics, 43:3 (2001): cites it with the third-person prefix, i.e. as weθkani
Costa, David J. (2003) The Miami-Illinois Language (Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas), Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN: cites it with the first-person prefix, i.e. as neθkani

^ Note that, as Goddard writes (op. cit.), "in the words for 'bone' and 'liver' Wiyot has d (phonetically a flap [r]) where Algonquian has *n. [...] Wiyot d goes back to earlier *n in all cases." That Wiyot r (i.e. /r/, which Goddard writes as ‹d›) originates from n was previously noted also by Sapir and by Kroeber.

[1] Note that, as Goddard writes (op. cit.), "in the words for 'bone' and 'liver' Wiyot has d (phonetically a flap [r]) where Algonquian has *n. [...] Wiyot d goes back to earlier *n in all cases." That Wiyot r (i.e. /r/, which Goddard writes as ‹d›) originates from n was previously noted also by Sapir and by Kroeber.

[1]