Reconstruction:Proto-Muskogean/ka

This Proto-Muskogean 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.

*ka

1. to say

• Booker (1980) argues that *ka (“to say”), *(-)ka (mediopassive auxiliary), and *-ka (definite) may be one polysemous Proto-Muskogean term (instead of different terms with distinct etymologies).

• *ka-či (causative)
  • Chickasaw: aachi
  • Choctaw: achi
  • Creek: kaycetv
  • Hitchiti: kači-
• *ka-li (transitive)
  • Choctaw: ali
• *o-ka (focus)
  • Creek: oketv
• *t-o-ka (quotative marker) (see there for further descendants)

• ⇒ Alabama: manka
• Choctaw: a
• ⇒ Creek: maketv
• Hitchiti: ka
  • ⇒ Hitchiti: onka-
• ⇒ Koasati: mankalaho̱, onkalaho̱
• ⇒ Mikasuki: onka-, inka-

*ka

1. (auxiliary) verb used to form mediopassive periphrastic constructions

The auxiliary verb does not survive as a distinct verb in any of the descendant languages (instead it survives as a suffix in the descendant languages), but both Haas (1977) and Booker (1980) agree that at some point in Proto-Muskogean history it must have been a separate auxiliary instead of a suffix.

• *-ka (see there for further descendants)

• *li (active auxiliary)
• *či (causative auxiliary)