Reconstruction:Proto-Siouan/wąthó

This Proto-Siouan 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.

According to Guillaume Jacques (2012), this word was borrowed from Proto-Algonquian *maθkwa (“bear”).

The Ohio Valley Siouan cognates are quite irregular in their development, showing many unpredictable sound changes, such as the raising and backing from *ą to ų, the shifting of the stress from the last to the penultimate syllable, the presence of vowel length, the aspirated th, and the change from *o to i. This may be due to a contamination with Proto-Siouan *wi-hų́te (“(black) bear”).

*wąthó

1. black bear
2. grizzly

• Pre-Mandan:
  • Mandan: wątóʔ
• Proto-Mississippi-Valley: *mąthó
  • Proto-Dakota: *mąthó
    • Lakota: matȟó
    • Dakota: mathó
  • Proto-Chiwere-Winnebago: *mąthó
    • Chiwere: mąthó
    • Winnebago: mąčó
  • Proto-Dhegiha: *mąthó
    • Omaha-Ponca: mąčhó (“bear”), mąthó (“grizzly”)
    • Kansa: mičhó
    • Osage: mįchó
    • Quapaw: mąthó, mąčhó
  • Proto-Ohio-Valley: *mų́•thi
    • Proto-Biloxi-Ofo:
      • Ofo: ų́•thi
    • Tutelo: hamų́•thih

• *wi-hų́te
• *wa-sápE

• Rankin, Robert L., Carter, Richard T., Jones, A. Wesley, Koontz, John E., Rood, David S., Hartmann, Iren, editors (2015), Comparative Siouan Dictionary‎, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology