Plains Cree: A Grammatical Study - Computer Science Club

30 [TRANS. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
mihko 'blood' (stem mihkw-).45 A form like kona
'snow' shows that the retention of the final vowel is
not restricted to monosyllabic stems with a short
vowel (cf. appendix A: 5.1).
3.311. The addition of a prefix does not affect the
retention of the suffixal vowel, e.g., otosi 'his canoe'
or omihko 'his blood.' One interpretation of these
forms would require apocope of the suffixal vowel
to precede the addition of the prefix (both synchronic-
ally and historically); this would conflict with the
fact that the affixes of the possession paradigm are
closer to the stem than those of the number-obviation
paradigm, e.g., kitosinaw 'our canoe.' It seems more
likely that monosyllabic stems without possessive
suffixes are exempt from the apocope rule due to the
pattern pressure of the simple forms; in fact, the
historical sources show some fluctuation. Clearly,
the whole issue of monosyllabic stems requires
further investigation.
The suffixal vowel of monosyllabic stems is retained
even when they function as the second member of a
compound, e.g., wdkayosi-wdti 'bear den'; this is
seen as evidence of the independent phonological
status of compound members (cj. 6.5).
3.312. Phonemically, the proximate singular and
the obviative of monosyllabic animate stems are
homophonous. Occasionally, this homophony is re-
solved by the addition of another -wa to the obviative
form ending in -wa. Thus, in T523p47, 48, 49 we find
both maskwa and maskwawa as the obviative of
maskwa 'bear.' An extra -wa suffix also occurs in the
obviative of certain other words most of which are
46 The following list of monosyllabic noun stems appears to be
relatively complete:
Animate:
-4w- 'wife' (dependent stem)
-Iskw- 'fellow wife' (dependent stem)
cts- 'Cisa' (name of trickster)
es- 'clam-shell'
ihkw- 'louse'
kakw- 'porcupine'
kon- 'snow'
maskw- 'bear'
mdkw-, mwakw- 'loon'
mosw- 'moose'
nisk- 'goose'
piskw- 'mosquito-hawk'
siht- 'evergreen'
Inanimate:
-ik-
mey-
mihkw-
miht-
6s-
pihkw-
wdt-
waw-
wlkw-
win-
wls-
wust-
'dwelling' (dependent stem)
'dung'
'blood'
'firewood'
'canoe'
'ashes'
'hole'
'egg'
'kidney-fat'
'marrow'
'belly-fat'
'beaver-lodge'
WOLFART: PLAINS CREE
clearly loans from English, e.g., omamawa 'his mother,'
from nimdma; meriwa 'Mary' from meriy; cimiwa
'Jimmy' from cimiy, etc.
3.32. /w/- Alternation
The number-obviation ("third person") suffixes of
nouns appear with two sets of alternants. One has
initial /w/, namely /wa, wi, wah/, the other lacks it,
namely /a, i, ah/.
Generally, the distribution of the alternants is
governed by the preceding environment; after a
consonant the /w/-less alternant occurs, after a vowel
that with /w/.
For instance, consider the forms
nitemak 'my horses,' otema 'his horse,' etc., but
otemiyiwa 'his (3') horse.' Cf. 5.471 for the similar
situation in the transitive animate verb paradigm.
A large number of noun stems end in a cluster
/Cw/. Since the /w/ occurs not only in the 3 and 3p
forms but in the 3' form and in the locative or vocative
forms as well, the /w/ clearly belongs to the stem
and does not take part in any alternation; the deri-
vational structure of the stem does not bear on the
problem at hand. Thus, mistikw-: mistik 'tree,'
mistikwak 'trees'; with suffix /eyiwa/: omistikoyiwa
'his (3') tree'; with suffix /ehk/: mistikohk 'on a tree';
or consider the stem atimw-: atim 'dog,' atimwak
'dogs'; with suffix /etik/: atimotik 'you dogs!'
In nouns ending in /Vw/, the identification of the
/w/ is less clear-cut.46 Consider the noun ndpew
'man' whose other inflected forms are ndpewak and
ndpewa; its stem could be set up as either ndpe- or
ndpew-. The formation of the possessed theme fails
to throw light on the problem because ninapem might
be formed from either stem; the contraction of
/ew-e/ to /e/ occurs independently, e.g., in the
inflection of the verb stem wicew- 'have him along':
niwicek 'he has me along,' kiwicetin 'I have you
along,' etc.; cf. appendix A: 4.2. The relevant mor-
phophonological statements are all independently
motivated and thus do not indicate a solution.
The existence of parallel stems in /Vy/, e.g., askiy
'land,' apasoy 'tent-pole,' supports the analysis of the
semivowel as part of the stem. But the evidence is
not conclusive, and a full treatment of noun stems
ending in a vowel-semivowel sequence will have to
await further synchronic and comparative studies.
3.4. PARADIGM TABLES
The tables show the possessive and number-
obviation paradigms combined. For an explanation
of the blank positions in the first table see 3.2 and 2.21.
The paradigms are given in phonemic representa-
tion; cf. Appendix A, especially fn. 85.
46A parallel situation exists in Menomini where there are at
least two derivational morphemes /w/ one of which "is homony-
mous with inflectional -3w and demands the same replacements
of preceding vowels" (Bloomfield, 1962: p. 242).