The Journal of California Anthropology

In this paper, I extend into the domain of plant life the consideration of intersection begun by Haas within the framework of body-part terms. Under discussion here are the diachronic complexities manifested by some northern Hokan morphemes occurring in terms for plants, trees, and bushes. These morphemes, all having a general interpretation 'of the plant world', make up two separate phonological subsets whose members are cognate. The fact that there are extra-Hokan similars for each subset leads to consideration of the possible extra-Hokan connections.