Reconstruction:Proto-Athabaskan/saːxy

This Proto-Athabaskan 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-Athabaskan

Alternative reconstructions

*saˑxʸ (per Leer 1996)^[1]

Etymology

Possibly from a spirantization of pre-Proto-Athabaskan *saːg. Cognate with Tlingit xágw. Compared to Proto-Yeniseian *çaç (“river, rivulet”) and Ket сесь (sʲēˑsʲ, “river”) by Fortescue-Vajda (2022).^[2]

Noun

*saːxy^[3]

sand

Descendants

Ahtna: saas
Chipewyan: thai
Navajo: séí (“sand”)
- Navajo: -ZÉÍ (“crumble”)
Tanacross: thaayh (“sand”)

References

^ Leer, Jeff (1996), Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon‎^[1], volume s/za-s/zE, Alaska Native Language Archive, page 11
^ Fortescue, Michael; Vajda, Edward (2022), Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎^[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 356
^ Jeff Leer (2010), “The palatal series in Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit, with an overview of the basic sound correspondences”, in Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian, Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, page 175

[1] Leer, Jeff (1996), Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon‎^[1], volume s/za-s/zE, Alaska Native Language Archive, page 11

[2] Fortescue, Michael; Vajda, Edward (2022), Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎^[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 356

[3] Jeff Leer (2010), “The palatal series in Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit, with an overview of the basic sound correspondences”, in Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian, Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, page 175

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