I say! A member of the Parachute Regiment turned native (7)
I believe the answer is:
arapaho
'i' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'a member of the parachute regiment turned native' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
'regiment' could be 'ra' (Royal Artillery) and 'ra' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pah' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'say' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arapaho that I've seen before include "Brave" , "North American Indian" , "North American native" , "tribe member" , "tribesman" .)