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Certain Proto-Algonquian Consonant Clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Frank T. Siebert Jr.
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Extract

[Bloomfield has set up the Proto-Algonquian clusters *xk and *xp, using x to represent an undetermined phoneme preceding k and p. This paper proposes to show that *xk consists of two clusters in the parent language, namely *θk and *xk. In addition to establishing the validity of a new Proto-Algonquian cluster, it gives the reflexes for the principal Eastern Algonquian languages and postulates the stages of development.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 17 , Issue 4-Part1: October-December , December 1941 , pp. 298 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © 1941 by the Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Leonard Bloomfield, On the Sound-System of Central Algonquian, Lang. 1.130–56 (1925).

2 The abbreviations used for languages are: PA for Proto-Algonquian, F for Fox, C for Cree, M for Menomini, O for Ojibwa, P for Penobscot, Ab. for Abenaki (dialect closely related to Penobscot), Ps. for Passamaquoddy-Malecite, Ms. for Massachusetts or Natick, D for Delaware (Unami dialect), Dm. for Munsee (dialect of Delaware), Pw. for Powhatan.

For the supporting forms in C, M, and O the writer is indebted to Bloomfield. Fox words are extracted from the texts of William Jones and Truman Michelson. Terms in P, Ab., Ps., D, and Dm. are from the writer's field notes. All are given in phonemic transcription.

The extinct languages, Ms. (from James H. Trumbull) and Pw. (from William Strachey and Captain John Smith) are in the traditional orthography of English, and are therefore only approximations.

About half of the PA reconstructions cited are from the publications of Bloomfield; the remainder have been made by the writer, employing the principles established by Bloomfield.

3 Lang. 1.150–1.

4 Lang. 1.138.

5 Some dialects of O have lost initial w.

6 P does not quite correspond since it lostan aspirate before t.

7 There are other evidences of such a cluster. For example, C kiya·sk ‘gull’, O kaya·šk, Miami kiyahkwa, P kahkw (dimin. kàhkwis), Pw. coiahqwus (dimin.), suggest that C sk, O šk, and the hk of Miami, P and Pw. belong together, although the forms do not correspond.

Another possible unknown cluster is evidenced by F e·mehkwa·ni ‘spoon’, C e·mihkwa·n, M e·miskwan, O e·mikkwa·n, P èmkwan, and Pw. hamkone.

8 PA *a· > P a before *θk and *xk, whether they are followed by *w or not.

9 PA *a· > P e before *xky. Although I have no other example of this, it can be accepted tentatively in view of the similar changes of *a· before *θk and *xk in P.

10 In P morphophonemics, initial hk becomes a long consonant or geminate, as do all stops.

11 P initial a in this word is anomalous, and perhaps may be due to the accent in P.

12 According to early Jesuit dictionaries this word meant ‘arrow’ in several P dialects, but this meaning has been lost in modern P.