#and i aced it last term and there's really not much HW so

[jinglejanglemornings]

i think i'm perhaps deceiving myself on how well i'm actually going to keep up with schoolwork when i'm in treatment

[wardoftheedgeloaves]

How many consonants did Proto-Algonquian really have, anyways?

Blackfoot undergoes a fairly large number of mergers compared to Proto-Algonquian: PA *t, *s, *r, *θ, *č and *š are all reflected as (mutatis mutandis, multaque mutanda mutantur) Blackfoot /t/.

It’s also been known since Ives Goddard’s 2015 AC paper that Blackfoot is to Core Algonquian what Anatolian is to IE, a branch of the family separate from the rest of it put together.

(strictly speaking a better analogy, given the distant California relatives, might be Blackfoot as Persian or a latter-day variety of Oscan and Core Algonquian as Indic or Romance, with Wiyot and Yurok represented by Swedish and Tocharian or something like that--but we’re not considering Wiyot and Yurok here).

This raises a question: how do we know that a Blackfoot merger isn’t actually a Core Algonquian split? We can be pretty certain that we already have an example of this: PA *č only appeared before *i *i: *y, where *t did not appear, except for the onomatopoeic *ti:nti:wa ‘blue jay’ and *čapo:nk- ‘to splash’--despite the loss of preconsonantal nasals in the Algonquian varieties north and east of the Hudson, the latter does not (I believe) implicate the place-name Chapaquiddick in ill-fated prophecy.

But I digress! A while back I made a spreadsheet of all the roots (well, all the initials) in Hewson’s Algonquian Dictionary, and *θ and *r, in particular, show difficult patterning. Those of you reasonably well acquainted with comparative Algonquian may recall that *r and *θ fall together in most of the family, except for Cree and Arapaho.

These two are also, well, difficult. *θ is reconstructible in only seven initials out of over 600--remember, this is a language with only twelve reconstructible consonants once you count out *č--and at least a few of these don’t look to be what they seem:

- *θeʔθaw- ‘forked’ and *θeʔθēmāw- ‘tobacco’ have Cree reflexes beginning in *čist-, as if they were *tiʔθ-. That’s an illegal reconstruction, though--PA *e and *i are in complementary distribution in initial syllables, with the latter appearing when there’s no initial consonant and the former when there is--e.g. *iθkwēwa ‘woman’ vs. *penkwi ‘dust’. Worse, while Menominee has the expected nɛʔnemāw for ‘tobacco’, the Ojibwe and Meskwaki reflexes suggest *aʔθēmāw-, and their reflexes of ‘forked’ suggest *θaʔθaw-. To cap it all off, in Passamaquoddy you get ‘tomawey, wihich I believe suggests earlier *əCtēmāw-; Massachusett (going by the 1903 dictionary of Natick) has <wuttamâuog>, which looks like /wətamɔ:wak/, so as if a plurale tantum from *otamēwaki or thereabouts. In other words, both of these reconstructions show widespread wonkiness with the first syllable; moreover, the *θe- versions look like reduplicants (an irregular but common process).

- *θām- ‘under’ has reflexes, but also has a much more common allomorph *aθām-. 

- *θēkw- ‘choke, shove in’ has no Cree cognates that I can find, and searching for the expected reflex tēk-/tēkw- produces no semantically close results on creedictionary.com (which collates several major dictionaries). It is possible that takwahiminān ‘chokecherry’ is related, if it was originally formed along the same semantic lines as the English name and irregular ablaut was involved. But the languages for which I can find a reflex of “chokecherry” (Arapaho, Ojibwe) don’t seem to be cognate--Arapaho uses a reflex of mi:ni ‘berry’, and Ojibwe has the clearly unrelated assassēwamin. I can’t find Passamaquoddy, Menominee, Meskwaki or Delaware reflexes.

Arapaho does have θeiʔiku:θe:- ‘put something inside something else’. Is it from *θēkw-? We would usually expect a long -ee- here, and Arapaho -ei- is usually from earlier *e: after proto-Arapaho-Atsina *y < PA *w or *y, but we would also expect *-kw-  to drop without a trace. I’m tentatively assigning this Arapaho term to the root, but I’d really like better confirmation...

- The remaining three--*θāp- ‘to thread through, replace’, *θāw- ‘middle’ and *θōm- ‘grease’--seem to be real, though the last of these seems to be confined to Cree and Ojibwe. So now we have a total of four initials beginning with *θ--remember, we would statistically expect somewhere around fifty if all consonants were distributed equally, or maybe twenty or so according to a more reasonable distribution--all of which have long vowels in them.

What are we to make of this? At this point we are wandering into speculative territory, but I believe the discussion at the end of Goddard’s 2015 paper on Blackfoot dimly illuminates some of the path before us. You see, where we have a word-initial consonant in a Core Algonquian verb, we often see an initial i- in Blackfoot. This seems to have often been the original state of affairs, with *i- usually lost in Core Algonquian; the exceptions are before *r (where *i- is retained in PA) and in the “relative” roots.

So let’s check Blackfoot. Of the four surviving roots in *θ-, here is what I can find:

- *θāp- ‘thread through, replace’: isttapini ‘to lace, weave, thread’ looks like a reflex. Initial i- in pre-Blackfoot conditions shortening of a following vowel, so that checks out. The geminate -tt- is harder to figure out; Blackfoot sometimes reflects PA *č as tt (Berman ‘06), presumably because *-ty- was already long.

- *θāw- ‘middle’: well, we have ihtatsiki ‘middle, center’. This looks like it could be from *θāw- given shortening, but there is no reason for the -w- to drop out--it’s usually retained. Perhaps *θāw- was some sort of composite, or perhaps ihtatsiki doesn’t reflect it at all.

- *θēkw- ‘choke, shove in, stick in, insert’: no clear reflex. 

- *θōm- ‘grease, fat’: no clear reflex.

Does this tell us anything? Maybe. Cluster-initial /h/ in Blackfoot is usually from an earlier true cluster in PA, as far as we can tell, and geminates tend to be from syncope, or something. In any case, initial *θ:

a) was incredibly rare, occurring in no more than four well-established roots.

b) only occured in verbal roots except for the one root that is only attested in Cree and Ojibwe. These two have a long history of borrowing from each other, but if *θōm- is not inherited then we need, e.g., hypercorrection where Old Ojibwe *rōm- gets borrowed into Cree and the *r is hypercorrected into /t/ on the basis of all those other Ojibwe words whose /r/ corresponds to Cree /t/. I don’t know if there are any examples of this occuring.

c) in the two cases where we maybe have a Blackfoot reflex, there’s an initial i-.

d) and also in those two cases, the initial reflex is kinda weird and points to there maybe having been an original true cluster. 

We know that when word-initial *i- dropped off between Proto-Algonquian-Blackfoot and Proto-Core-Algonquian, it occasionally reduced a following consonant cluster to its second member, which is occasionally restored, so that the relative root *taθ- ‘somewhere’ magically becomes -entaθ- when you add a prefix. This sort of makes me wonder whether *θ was a medial-only consonant with the few initial reflexes being flukes of lost reduplication or an initial cluster.

----------------

I’ll probably pick this up again at some point, but the thought I’m chewing on is that *θ may actually be entirely secondary, deriving from some sort of cluster--it’s not crazy common medially, and when you do see it it’s very often in a cluster. When you do see it in a cluster it often varies with *t--in particular there seems to have been a process where transitives with inanimate objects that had stems ending in *-ta:- had counterparts with animate objects whose stems ended in *-θ-. Also, there’s at least one example of singleton *θ whose morpheme has another version where it is in a cluster. That would be *aθemwa ‘dog’, which has a medial (incorporated) version *-aʔθemw-. 

This all raises the rather tenuous possibility that maybe singleton *θ derived from a cluster of some sort.

Similar in behavior to *θ: *h, which did not occur word-initially and only appears in one verbal initial outside of a cluster: *nah- ‘nice, proper, skillful’. As a medial or final, it only appears outside clusters in *-h- ‘causative’ and *-hw- ‘by instrument’. There are one or two noun roots that have it, but these tend to be irregular or onomatopoeic. Then there’s *š, which derived from *θ before *i *i: *y except when it didn’t--a small handful of roots have this word-initially--and which seems to have behaved like *θ in Blackfoot. I think you can assume a sound-law *θy > šy > š / #_ too; no root of the form *šy- seems to be reconstructible. It’s harder to get rid of *š altogether than it is to get rid of *č, though.

(also, *i and *e were in complimentary distribution in initial syllables, *e appearing after consonants and *i appearing bare--so e.g. for *šek- ‘to urinate’ you could maybe have had *θik- > *šik- > *šek-. however the wonderfully intuitive Blackfoot reflex issksi suggests there may be onomatopoeia involved)

[pepperoniwhirlwind]

Questions :)

Tagged by: @snorlax-and-co ~ Thanks a bunch sweet pea for tagging me. xP I’m gonna have fun answering these~ 😄

Name: Tony. 😝

Nicknames: Tony, Pepperoni (that’s where my Tumblr name comes from. xP My family used to call me that since it rhymed with my nickname “Tony”). I was also called “Internet” in school because it sounded like my birth name. 😂

Zodiac Sign: Aries.

Height: Used to be 5′ 7″ before spinal surgeries. 0.0 Now I’m 5′ 5″. ^^’ Oh well, not much I can do about it now. -^^-

Orientation: Oh boy… depends on who you ask. That varies pretty widely in this system. xD But strictly speaking about myself, asexual would fit the best. -^^- If we got into romantic orientation, my answer would be Demi-Panromantic Asexual. ^^’ I feel like that confuses a lot of people, though… heck, asexual confuses a lot of people. xD I generally just don’t talk about my orientation (or gender for that matter) with most people because of this. 😂 My gender is equally confusing, and I use transguy for simplicity as well, same as I just use ace for simplicity with sexuality. xP Being a multiple has always made figuring this stuff out rather difficult, so I generally stick around umbrella terms with my identity to make things easier. -^^-

Nationality: American, but I have a lot of family in Germany and Scotland and have always wanted to live in the latter. 😊

Favorite Fruit?: Hmm… that’s tricky. I love watermelon and kiwi… I also love clementines, plums, cherries… it’d… be easier to tell you the fruit I don’t like actually. x’D Which is basically tomatoes. Ick~! I hate tomatoes. e~e They’re hardly fruit in my book!

Favorite Season?: Autumn/Fall~ 🍂🌰☕❤️️

Favorite Book?: I’ve only really been able to read one book recreationally as of late. ^^’ But it was a really good book, and I loved it! It was a book I bought on a whim, without really knowing if I’d like it or not, and I finished it, so… that says something I guess. x’D It’s called “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil” by Paul Bloom. It’s a nonfiction book, with a focus on psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. It delves into studies on morality and humanity, particularly in infants and young children. I found it to be a fascinating read, and so did Reiji. xP Other than that, the only books I’ve read have been for school. ^^’

Favorite Flower?: Hmm, I think lilies and daisies are very nice~ 🌼 -^^- I know Honey loves sunflowers. 🌻

Favorite Scent?: I love fruity and woodsy scents. For instance, I have a lavender hand sanitizer that I really like, and a “Garden Rain” candle that’s to die for~ 💙 The tamer and more natural the smell, the more likely I am to enjoy it. -^^- Scents I can’t stand would be really sweet smelling ones (my sister likes to buy perfumes that smell like cupcakes and other sweet smells and it hurts my nose. Q~Q).

Favorite Color?: I like gray, blue, and green, in no particular order. Those would have to tie for my favorites. -^^- I wear those colors the most. I’m wearing a blue t-shirt and gray capris this very moment, actually. xD

Favorite Animal?: Pretty much all of these questions vary widely between who in the system would be answering, but personally, I love elephants. 🐘 I love a lot of animals actually, but I admire the elephant’s intelligence and capacity for emotion, so they get first place for now. I know Gillie would say bunnies, and Reiji loves cats. -^^-

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Cocoa?: Ohh~ hot cocoa is delicious… but tea is healthier, e~e and still tastes really good… I’m sorry hot cocoa, you just can’t win with all that sugar. ^^’ Maybe next time, buddy~

Average Sleep Hours?: Oh… goodness. Nonexistent? x’D This question in particular really goes all over the place depending on which alter we’re talking about here. Myself? I’m a mess. I don’t have average sleep hours. I sleep when I’ve earned it, and if I haven’t, I don’t get to sleep. ^^’ I’m trying to go easier on myself about that…

Cat or Dog Person?: Cat for me~ 😻 This changes with who you ask, though, same as the favorite animal. I know Mi-Suk loves dogs. xP I don’t have anything against them either, dogs are adorable~ 🐶

Favorite Fictional Character?: Oh, my… this one’s hard. I’ve been watching a lot of Steven Universe recently, and have fallen in love with basically all of the characters. xD Can I just answer all the crystal gems + some?  😂

Blog Created: Uh, I’m not sure on that one. I’m gonna guess around 6 months ago, though? ^^’ I’ve not been around for very long.

Number of Followers: 44. I’m actually surprised. Last I checked it was 32 or something. xD

When Did Your Blog Reach Its Peak?: Maybe a month or so ago? It’s slowed down since college is taking up more and more of my time. @~@ I hope to reach 50 someday, though. xP

What Made You Decide to Get a Tumblr?: For the same reason as Snorlax, to be honest. 0.0 We wanted to meet others with DID, and learn more about it in the process. We’d done a lot of research and soul-searching on our own, and figured it was time to start getting involved in a community and moving towards recovery. This is the first and only social media account I have that I actually tend to, and haven’t completely abandoned after making it. x’D So I’m pretty proud of that. -^^-

Why Did You Pick Your URL?: I talked about this a little bit towards the start of this monstrous post, but I guess I can talk a little more about it. xD “Pepperoni” was one of my nicknames as a kid, and “Whirlwind” was just a word that popped into my head as I was making my URL, so I went with it. x’D I basically always name my accounts on spontaneous ideas. I’m fashionably impulsive. 😎

Last Movie You Watched?: The last movie I watched was when I wrote a paper on “To Kill a Mockingbird” for my film class. -^^- It’s a classic, what else can I say?

Last Song You Listened To?: ”Here Comes A Thought/Flexibility, Love, and Trust” from Steven Universe. 😊

Last Book You Read?: I’ve been reading short stories and poems from my Literature textbook for my ENG 102 class. xP

Last Thing You Ate?: A bowl of cereal… yesterday. ^^’ I haven’t had time to eat today what with attending class, cleaning my room, doing hw, etc. I’ll eat eventually, same as sleep, so don’t worry about little old me. -^^-

If You Could Be Anywhere Right Now, Where Would You Be?: Under the stars, bundled up with my girlfriend~ ❤️️ We’ll try to find constellations, then just talk for hours once we realize we’re not very good at the former. xD

What Time Would You Travel to If You Could?: I would be wary to time-travel anywhere, but if I had to, I’d probably check out the future. See when flying cars will be mainstream, you know? xP

And that’s all the questions! That was a long one for sure, but I absolutely loved it. -^^- Sorry about the length, though. ^^’ It probably would have been shorter if I didn’t ramble, but I’m bad at not doing that. xD

Tagging: @sammyswolf, @the-galaxy-system, @systemofafault, @halfway-into-darkness, @greencresentmoon, @spruceneedlesandcoffee, @sadpartyboy, @multiple-myselves, and @disabilityhealth~  😊 If anyone else wants to do it, please feel free! If you were tagged and don’t want to do it, that’s fine too. Take care, everyone~! and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or night, wherever you are~ 💚 - Tony

[joseph-joestar-plz-twerk-4-me]

eyy i was tagged by @lancekoganee, @lovelylangst, and @fictionismynationality for the 92 truths thing so here it issss

LAST… [1] drink: dr pepper [2] phone call: uh well the last like 5 people to call me were spam numbers but the last i actually talked on was with my sister [3] text message: bff callie [4] song you listened to: just one yesterday by fall out boy [5] time you cried: a few hours ago when i remembered my characters name in the demi episode game that i played a year and a half ago was “whipe dat azz”

HAVE YOU EVER… [6] dated someone twice: unfortunately yes [7] been cheated on: no [8] kissed someone and regretted it: no [9] lost someone special: ?? im not sure bc there’s a lot of people who used to be special but the friendship either imploded or slowly died sooo [10] been depressed: no [11] gotten drunk and thrown up: no lol i am rather pure for my age lmao

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLORS: [12] dark green [13] pastel pink [14] that blue that looks really good in velvet

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU… [15] made new friends: yeah! [16] fallen out of love: yes? im not sure if it was love to begin w sooo [17] laughed until you cried: bruh i did like 3 hours ago lol [18] found out someone was talking about you: yeah apparently im “famous” at best buy bc my coworker (who also works there) was telling his coworkers about shenanigans him and i get into  [19] met someone who changed you: yee [20] found out who your true friends are: yeah. ive cut out a lot of people but its for the better [21] kissed someone on your facebook list: not currently lol (my current bf isnt my friend on facebook lmao)

GENERAL… [22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: most of them tbh, but i need to go through and clean out my friends list [23] do you have any pets: 3 cats and a doggo [24] do you want to change your name: nah but a nickname would be cool [25] what did you do for your last birthday: i didnt work  i saw Fantastic Beasts in the morn and had lunch w my bf, then hung out w my friends and had dinner w them and the fam, went home and played sims [26] what time did you wake up: 7-730ish am [27] what were you doing at midnight last night: coming home from work/starting precal hw [28] name something you cannot wait for: obviously voltron season 3 but i also want to jsut get thru the next few weeks bc work is going to be a   n i g h t m a r e  and i want my suffering to be over asap [29] when was the last time you saw your mother: 2 hours ago [30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: honestly i would go back in time and tell little middle school me to try out for region (bc i honestly believe if i had just had a year or two more expirience auditioning, then i wouldve made the all state choir) and then go to junior yr me and say “stop being an angry ho and   c a l m   d o w n   . i wish i could go back a year from today and tell myself that the management position is not worth it. to find another job while i can. (however, i use my job as motivation to do well in school: “do well, keep up my gpa, get my degree. i dont want to be at the movie theater forever”) [31] what are you listening to right now: my klance playlist (death of a bachelor is currently playing) [32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: ive talked to a tommy and someone whos last name is toms [33] something that is getting on your nerves: anything customer related/ “can an available manager come to the stand for an employee purchase��� [34] most visited website: college homepage, math hw website, tumblr, gmail, netflix (recently made my friend watch voltron every MWF after out speech class lol) [35] elementary: my awkward acne/glasses/pre-braces/braces phase. also i wore training bras for 3 yrs bc i was so uncomfortable w my boobs that i couldnt tell my mom i needed an actual bra [36] high school: i can look at pictures and tell by my smile where i lost my childish innocence (halfway thru junior yr)  [37] college: community rn, but i plan on transfering to tamu and getting at least a bachelors in environmental science. i have to research into carriers to see if a masters/phd is worth it, but that is something im interested in [38] hair color: blonde when clean [39] long or short hair: the question of the century. i look good w a lob, but i also love braiding hair sooo [40] do you have a crush on someone: i mean i have a crush on my bf lance [41] what do you like about yourself: i guess im funny. i can sing the whole danny phantom theme song  [42] piercings: triples in each ear, helix and double forward helix in my right ear (planning on getting a faux snug in my left ear eventually. id like a nose ring, but work wont let me. i maybe want a belly button ring, if i decide to work out for it lol as if) [43]blood type: i dunno, but looking at it makes me queasy so [44] nickname: maycakers, big titty t, mak [45] relationship status: long term relationship (idk how many months now but its over 2 yrs so) [46] zodiac sign: scorpio [47] pronouns: she/her.  [48] fav tv show: voltron, avatar the last airbender (im laughing i typed “airbeder” at firs), the office, drake and josh [49] tattoos: never (ill stick w piercings) [50] right or left hand: right 

FIRST… [51] surgery: does having a wart dug out of my toe count [52] piercing: the standard single pair when i was 6 [53] best friend: aaliyah but once we got to middle school we didnt have classes together and i didnt see her much in highschool (i heard about her bc she broke a lot of sports records. shes gonna be an olympian in 2020 y’all. i can feel it) [54] sport: does drill team count [55] vacation: we went to the state capitol w my grandparents  [56] pair of trainers: wtf are trainers

RIGHT NOW… [57] eating: nothing bc my stomach is currently revolting [58] drinking: grape powerade [59] i’m about to: take a nap gd im tired [60] listening to: euphoria by loreen [61] waiting for: sleep to take me [62] want: my period back ache to stop [63] get married: i want to get married so bad i want to be super domestic and have a bb and that kid is gonna recycle EVERYTHING and i will love them [64] career: ecologist? environmental researcher? environmental biologist? agricultural reformer? idk i just want to do something w the environment 

WHICH IS BETTER… [65] hugs or kisses: hugs  [66] lips or eyes: eyes are pretty [67] shorter or taller: taller bc then ur head is in their chest when u hug. or u have to get on tippy toes to kiss. yes. [68] older or younger: older older older [70] nice arms or nice stomach: yknow stomaches are nice and all but u cant see them bc shirts. u can see arms tho ohmy [71] sensitive or loud: idk im loud so  [72] hook up or relationship: relationship ftw. hook ups sound...really gross to me (my ace ass cant fathom hookups lol) [73] troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

HAVE YOU EVER… [74] kissed a stranger? ew no [75] drank hard liquor? the only thing ive ever drank ever is a shot of cherry sake (i spit that back out it was gross) and a shot of goldschlager (which cleared sinuses i didnt know i had and made me reaaaalllly giggly) [76] lost glasses/contact lenses? lmao all the time [77] turned someone down: yeah  [78] sex on first date? no [79] broken someone’s heart? yes  [80] had your own heart broken? not really? i felt sad both times i broke up w my ex but i knew it was for the best [81] been arrested? no but ive had someone threaten me w calling the cops [82] cried when someone died? my granny, cat, hamster [83] fallen for a friend? i mean my bf was my friend before we dated so i guess

DO YOU BELIEVE IN… [84] yourself? tbh i am super confident in my schoolwork and just... not at all at work [85] miracles? yeah but sometimes they fail me [86] love at first sight? no  [87] Santa Claus? rip [88] kiss on the first date? ehhh [89] angels? maybe

OTHER… [90] current best friend’s name: CALLIE [91] eye color: blue [92] favorite movie: oh fuq i love tangled and anastasia 

i dont know 20 people or whatever so imma tag @pierce-the-llama, @marcoandthebodts (you sent me one of these like 55245 years ago and i shall do it now lol), @connors-sweet-ass, and @justklance if y’all want to