"No Ojibwe owns a skunk"

[stoutfellow]

Courtesy of English, Jack, an amusing anecdote about Edward Sapir. I'm inclined to wonder whether Ojibwe distinguishes alienable from inalienable possession, and if so which of the two Sapir was trying to use?

Comments

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

At a guess, it had to do with the phonetic shape of the word for "skunk"; it sounds like Sapir had a conjecture concerning the way Ojibwe phonemes change in particular contexts, and that word seemed like a good test case.

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Ah. Makes sense. Not as absurd, however.