Moose cree reflexes

[wilsonsamm]

I've got some questions about Moose Cree reflexes.
Moose Cree is an L-Dialect variety of the Cree language, so that where Proto-Algonquian had *r, Moose Cree has /l/. This explains the first /l/ in the word ililiw (a (native) man, from PA *ereniwa).

What I am interested in is knowing about that second /l/. PA had *n, so why is this /l/ in Moose Cree? *n corresponds to modern-day /n/ in Moose Cree, which is why they say ciimaan for "boat".

[linguoboy]

I don't know anything about Moose Cree specifically, but when it comes to dental/alveolar nasals, laterals, and rhotics, both assimilation and dissimilation are very common processes. In Korean, for instance, /l/ can surface as [0], [ɾ], [l], or [n] depending on what it appears next to. So unless there's a strong reason to believe otherwise, I would simply chalk this up to progressive assimilation of *n to the preceding /l/.

[wilsonsamm]

That sounds plausible. In that case, it would be interesting to know if this is something that happens only intermittently, or regularly in the various Cree dialects (and then, under what circumstances? )

[vijayjohn]

Isn't it *elenyiwa in proto-Algonquian, with *erenyiwa as an alternative form? Northern East Cree has īyiyiw 'human, Cree', and Southern East Cree has īyiyū (with the same meaning).