Assiniboine language
Template:Under construction/Rutgers
| Assiniboine | |
|---|---|
| Assiniboin, Hohe, Nakota, Nakoda, Nakon, Nakona, or Stoney | |
| Nakʰóda | |
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region |
Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada Mosquito-Grizzly Bear's Head-Lean Man, Saskatchewan, Canada White Bear, Saskatchewan, Canada Fort Belknap, Montana, United States Fort Peck, Montana, United States South Dakota, United States |
| Ethnicity | 3,500 Assiniboine (2007)[1] |
Native speakers | 150 (2007)[1] |
|
Siouan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
asb |
| Glottolog |
assi1247[2] |
The Assiniboine language (also known as Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakota, Nakoda, Nakon or Nakona,[3] or Stoney ) is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains. Estimate of native speakers range from less than 50,[4] to about 100,[5] to about 150 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly.[6] Assiniboine, the name, comes from the tribe Asiniibwaan, which is an Ojibwe term meaning "Stone Siouans". The reason they were called this was due to the fact that Assiniboine people used heated stone to boil their food. In Canada, Assiniboine people are known as Stoney Indians, while they called themselves Nakota or Nakoda. The word Nakota or Nakoda means allies.
Classification
Assiniboine is pronounced as ah-SIN-uh-boin. Along with the closely related Stoney, Assiniboine is an n variety of the Dakotan languages, meaning its autonym is pronounced with an initial n (thus: Nakʰóta as opposed to Dakʰóta or Lakʰóta, and Nakʰóda or Nakʰóna as opposed to Dakʰód or Lakʰól). The Assiniboine language is also closely related to the Sioux language and to the Stoney language (likewise called Nakoda or Nakota), although they are hardly mutually intelligible.
History
Estimate of native speakers range from less than 50,[4] to about 100,[5] to about 150 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly of total ethnicity of 3,500 people. Dakotan group of the Siouan family has five main language division which are Dakota (Santee-Sisseton), Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai), Lakota (Teton), Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Nakoda (Stoney).[7][8]
Geographic distribution
The places the language is spoken is,
Official status
About 50 elderly people speaking remaining.[4]
Dialects/Varieties
The three different dialect that exists is Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney Dialect. The exact number interrelationships among the subdialects and dialects comprising this continuum have been indeterminate. Assiniboine and Stoney call themselves Nakóta, while the Sioux call themselves Lakóta or Dakóta depending on the dialect. [7]
| DIALECT GROUP | SELF-DESIGNATION | POLITICAL DESIGNATION |
|---|---|---|
| Santee-Sisseton | Dakóta | Sioux |
| Yankton-Yanktona | Dakóta | Sioux |
| Teton | Lakóta | Sioux |
| Assiniboine | Nakóta | Assiniboine |
| Stoney | Nakóta | Stoney |
| RESERVATION OR RESERVE | DIALECT |
|---|---|
|
Assiniboine separated either before all the Sioux dialect separated or at the same time the other dialects were separated. |
Alberta |
| Alexis | Stoney |
| Paul | Stoney |
| Bighorn | Stoney |
| Stoney (Morley) | Stoney |
| Eden Valley | Stoney |
| Saskatchewan | |
| Carry the Kettle | Assiniboine |
| Mosquito-Grizzly Bear's Head | Assiniboine |
| Moose Woods (White Cap) | Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) |
| Standing Buffalo | Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) |
| Sioux Wahpeton (Round Plain) | Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) |
| Whitebear | Assiniboine |
| Wood Mountain | Sioux (Teton) |
| Manitoba | |
| Birdtail | Sioux (Santee) |
| Oak Lake | Sioux (Santee) |
| Sioux Valley | Sioux (Santee) |
| Sioux Village-Long Plain | Sioux (Santee) |
| North Dakota | |
| Devil's Lake | Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) |
| Standing Rock | Sioux (Yanktonai) |
| South Dakota | |
| Cheyenne River | Sioux (Teton) |
| Lower Brule | Sioux (Teton) |
| Flandreau | Sioux (Santee) |
| Crow Creek | Sioux (Yanktonai) |
| Pine Ridge | Sioux (Teton) |
| Rosebud | Sioux (Teton) |
| Sisseton | Sioux (Teton) |
| Standing Rock | Sioux (Teton) |
| Yankton | Sioux (Yankton) |
| Nebraska | |
| Santee | Sioux (Santee) |
| Minnesota | |
| Lower Sioux | Sioux (Santee) |
| Prairie Island | Sioux (Santee) |
| Prior Lake | Sioux (Santee) |
| Upper Sioux | Sioux (Santee) |
| Montana | |
| Fort Belknap | Assiniboine |
| Fort Peck | Assiniboine, Sioux (Yanktonai, Sisseton) |
Example: Horse
| Santee-Sisseton | súkataka |
| Yankton-Yanktonai | sukawaka |
| Teton | sukawaká |
| Assiniboine | súkataka |
| Stoney | suwatága |
Assiniboine separated way before the other dialects or around the same time as other dialects. Many linguists continue to believe that Assiniboine and Stoney are the same. However, they are linguistically distinct. In fact, mutually unintelligible. One study correctly reported that not only are they not variant forms of a single dialect, but that Assiniboine is actually closer to the Sioux dialects than it is to Stoney. [7]
Sounds/Phonology
The phoneme has twenty-seven (27) consonants, which includes aspirated, plain, and ejective stops. In addition to this, it has five oral vowels and three nasal vowels. It is a structure-preserving language. Assiniboine has no definite or indefinite articles , no nominal case system, and no verbal tense marking. Clauses unmarked are "realized," while clauses marked as "potential" by means of verbal enclitic, which is successful in producing a future/non-future distinction. The verbal system is split into active and stative (split-intransitive). The active object pronominal affixes coincide with the stative verbs of the subject pronominal affixes.[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal or postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | |
| Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | ʔ | |
| Plain | p | t | tʃ | k | ||
| Fricative | Voiceless | s | ʃ | x | h | |
| Ejective | sʼ | ʃʼ | xʼ | |||
| Voiced | z | ʒ | ɣ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | h[cn 1] | |||
The stops (and affricates) of Assiniboine are often described as voiced rather than plain, due to intervocalic voicing rules which result in surface voiced forms. Nonetheless, these should be analyzed as plain.[5]
| Character we use: | IPA Symbol | Assiniboine Pronouncation |
|---|---|---|
| i | i | i as in police |
| u | u | u as in flute |
| e | e | e as in a in mate |
| o | o | o as in vote |
| a | a | a as in father |
| Character we use: | IPA Symbol | Also used as |
|---|---|---|
| ą | ã | an, an, aη, aN |
| į | ĩ | in, in, iη, iN |
| ų | ũ | un, on, un, uη, uN |
There are five oral vowels in Assiniboine, i, u, e, o, and a, and three nasal vowels, į, ų, and ą.[5]
Words that follow above rules
1) /bahá/ hill 2) /pahá/ hair 3) /čupó/ fog 4) /ptą/ otter 5) /pka/ heavy 6) /psi/ rice 7) /pša/to sneeze 8) /pni/ water 9) /dóba/ four 10) /to/ blue 11) /ta/ dead
Grammar
Morphology
Morphological processes for Assiniboine language are primarily agglutinating. [5] In addition, the character of morpheme alternation in Assiniboine may be classified in terms of phoneme loss, phoneme shift, contraction, nasalization loss , syllable loss , syntactic contraction, and syntactic alternation. [10]
Morphophonemics
Contraction->When two syllabics come into contact they contract as in:
/a/+/i/ > /i/ Ex1) ápa “morning” + íyapi “they go” > ápayapi “they stayed awake until morning"
Ex2) nakóta “ally” + iápi “they speak” > nakótiapi “a little Indian (to speak)”
/i/+/i/ > /i/ Ex) ohómini “circle” + íyapi “they go” > (a) óhominiyapi “they circle”
/a/+/u/ > /u/ Ex) wicá “them” + úkkupica “we give” > wicúkkupica “we give them”
Phoneme loss: Syllabics
when /a/ is in medial position between /k/ and /h/:
/a/> /Φ/ Ex) waníyaka "to see you" + hi "he comes" > waníyakshi "he came to see you"
when /o/ is in the medial position between /i/ and/k/:
/o/>/Φ/ Ex) ukíce “we ourselves” + okáxniga “to understand” > ukícaxnigapi “we understand each other”
when /e/ is in medial position between /p/ and /k/:
/e/>/Φ/ Ex) napé “hand” + kóza “to wave” > napkóza “to beckon”
Phoneme loss: semi syllabics
/y/ > /Φ/ when: /y/ follows /n/ Ex)mn “I” + yuhá “to have” > mnuhá “I have”
Phoneme loss:non syllanics
/k/ is in medial postion between/u/ and/k/ or /u/ and /h/ or /u/ and /n/ or /u/ and /y/
/k/ > /Φ/ Ex1) uk “we” + kágapi “they make” > ukágapi “we make”
Ex2) uk “we” + ya “you” + naxú “to hear” > nauyaxúpi “you hear us”
Phoneme shift:syllanics
/i/ > /a/ before /n/ Ex) awáci "to think" + ni "you" > awácani "you think"
Phoneme shift: non syllabics
When /a/--/e/ is in medial position between/g/ and /š/
/g/ > /x/ Ex) okáxnige “to understand” + -ši(negative suffix) > owákaxnixeši “I don’t understand”
When /a/--/e/ is in medial position between/g/ and /c/
/g/ > /x/ Ex) okáxniga “to understand” + -ce(iterative suffix) + wa “I” > owákaxnixace “I understand”
When /g/ is in medial position between /a/ and /y/
/g/ > /x/ Ex) icáge “to grow” + -ya(causative suffix) > icáxya “to cause to grow”
Nasalization loss exists as follows:
/ą/ > /a/ Ex) mázą "iron" + ska "white" > mazáska "money"
Syllable loss occurs as follows:
/ye/ > /Φ/ Ex) iyópe... ye "to pay" so, iyópe + wa + ye > iyópewa "I pay"
Syntactic contraction: personal inflectional morphemes
wa "I" + ni "you" > ci "I...you"; Ex) kku "to give" + ci "I... you" + -kta(future suffix) > cicúta "I will give you"
Syntactic contraction with verbal themes occurs as follows
/i/ + /k/ - /kk/ > c; Ex) i "with something" + kahíta "to sweep" > icáhita "broom"
Syntactic alternation
/a/ > /e/ in verbal theme Ex) wamnáka "I saw" > wamnáke "I saw"
/a/>/e/ in nomial theme Ex) skúya "sweet" > skúye "sweet"
/a/>/e/ with the future suffix; wicákkupikta "they will be given" > wicákkupikte "they will be given"
Syntax
Assiniboine is SOV word order. Elements order might be different from the canonical SOV, this is not free nor scrambling word order, but instead, the result of topicalization or other movements. Out of context sentences are always interpreted as SOV order even if it sounds odd. For example, 'the man bit the dog', unless an element is moved into a focus position. Focused element sentences are highly marked, and practically, a strange semantic reading is preferred over an interpretation of OSV. For example, the following sentence was interpreted as 'a banana ate the boy' by the Native Americans, and to get the OSV reading out of it the object must be stressed.
škóškobena wãži hokšína že yúda.
banana a boy DET ate
A banana ate the boy. - preferred translation
The boy ate a banana. [4]
Vocabulary/Lexis
1)wąži-One 2)nųba-Two 3)yamni-Three 4)tópa-four 5)záptą- Five 6)šákpe-six 7)iyušna-Seven 8)šaknoğą-Eight 9)napcuwąga- Nine 10)wikcémna-Ten 11)saba-Black 12)ska-White 13)ša-Red 14)to-Blue
More words can be found in the Dakota-English Dictionary [11]
- Prounonciation can be learned at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7o1X1tBgaw by Fred Spyglass
Writing System
Class 1
wa- 1st person+singular
ya- 2nd person
Class 2
ma- 1st person+singular
ni- 2nd person
For both class 1 and 2
ũ- 1st person-singular
o- 3rd person
wica- 3rd person
ci- 1st person + singular subject/ 2nd person object [4]
Examples
1) Wĩyã že wicĩnjana ne waxbé edãhã
Woman det girl this tea some give
The woman gave this girl some tea
2) Wĩyã že mastĩnja wãzí kudé
Woman det rabbit one/a shoot
The woman shot a rabbit
3) Mastĩnja že wa-kúde
Rabbit det 1sS-shoot
I shot the rabbit
4) Wĩyã že ya-bústaga
Woman det 2S-kiss
You kissed the woman
5) Wĩyã že bustága
Woman det kiss
The woman kissed him/her/it
S/he kissed the woman
6) Ma-stústa
1sO-tired
I am tired
7) Ni-stústa
2O-tired
You are tired.
Notes
- 1 2 Assiniboine at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Assiniboine". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ For the usage of the term “nakona” by Fort Peck's Assiniboine, cf. Fort Peck Community College and NHE
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 West, Shannon L. (2003). Subjects and Objects in Assiniboine Nakoda (Doctoral dissertation). University of Victoria.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cumberland, Linda (2005). A grammar of Assiniboine: a Siouan language of the Northern Plains (Ph.D. Thesis). Indiana University.
- ↑ Ethnologue (cf. above).
- 1 2 3 4 Parks, D. R., & DeMallie, R. J.. (1992). Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney Dialects: A Classification. Anthropological Linguistics, 34(1/4), 233–255. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30028376
- ↑ Miller, D., Smith, D., McGeshick, J. R., Shanley, J., & Shields, C. (2008). The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, 1800-2000. Montana: Montana Historical Society Press.
- ↑ Hollow, R. C.. (1970). A Note on Assiniboine Phonology. International Journal of American Linguistics, 36(4), 296–298. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1264256
- 1 2 Levin, N. B. (1964).The Assiniboine language. Bloomington: Indiana University.
- ↑ Riggs, S. R. (1892). A Dakota-English Dictionary. Washington: US Government Printing
Content Notes
- ↑ Cumberland (2005) includes /h/ as a glide rather than fricative due to its frequent place assimilation to the following vowel.
External links
 |
Assiniboine language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
Assiniboine language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Fred Spyglass of Mosquito First Nation counting
Assinboine History
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRKuIxgaOn8
- Language Geek:Assiniboine
- Native Languages: Assiniboine
- Online dictionary of Assniboine, American Indian Studies Research Institute
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