Assiniboine language

Assiniboine
Assiniboin, Hohe, Nakota, Nakoda, Nakon, Nakona, or Stoney
Nakʰóda
Native to Canada, United States
Region

Saskatchewan, Canada

Montana, 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. The name Assiniboine comes from the term Asiniibwaan, from Ojibwe, 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, meaning "allies".

Classification

The Dakotan group of the Siouan family has five main divisions: Dakota (Santee-Sisseton), Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai), Lakota (Teton), Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Nakoda (Stoney).[4][5] 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.

The Siouan Family of Languages [6]

Official status

An estimate of native speakers ranges from less than 50,[6] to about 100,[7] to about 150 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly.[8]

Related languages

Sioux, Assiniboine, and Stoney are closely related languages of the Dakota family. Many linguists consider Assiniboine and Stoney to be dialects. However, they are mutually unintelligible. Parks and DeMallie report that they are not variant forms of a single dialect, but that Assiniboine is closer to the Sioux dialects than it is to Stoney. The exact number of interrelationships among the subdialects and dialects comprising this continuum is unknown.[4]

DIALECT GROUP SELF-DESIGNATION POLITICAL DESIGNATION
Santee-Sisseton Dakóta Sioux
Yankton-Yanktona Dakóta Sioux
Teton Lakóta Sioux
Assiniboine Nakóta Assiniboine
Stoney Nakóta Stoney

Geographic distribution

The languages of the Dakotan group are spoken in the following regions:

RESERVATION OR RESERVE DIALECT
Alberta
Alexis Stoney
Bighorn Stoney
Eden Valley Stoney
Paul Stoney
Stoney (Morley) Stoney
Saskatchewan
Carry the Kettle Assiniboine
Moose Woods (White Cap) Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai)
Mosquito-Grizzly Bear's Head Assiniboine
Sioux Wahpeton (Round Plain) Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai)
Standing Buffalo 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)
Crow Creek Sioux (Yanktonai)
Flandreau Sioux (Santee)
Lower Brule Sioux (Teton)
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)

[4]

Example of lexical difference between the languages of the Dakotan group:

English horse
Santee-Sisseton súkataka
Yankton-Yanktonai sukawaka
Teton sukawaká
Assiniboine súkataka
Stoney suwatága

Sounds/Phonology

The phonemic inventory has 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.[7]

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
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.[7]

Oral vowels

Character we use: IPA Symbol Assiniboine Pronunciation
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

nasal vowels

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.[7]

Words that follow above rules

[9]

Syllable Structure

Syllables are primarily of CV structure. While codas are possible, they are restricted and uncommon, often becoming restructured as the onset of the following syllable. Onsets may include up to two consonants but codas must be simplex. Possible onset clusters are given in the following table (reproduced from Cumberland 2005):

Second
p t k s š c m n
First p - ptą

otter

 - psį

rice

 pšA

sneeze

 napcA

swallow

 - -
t - - tkA

heavy

 - - - - -
k kpamni

serve

 kte

kill

 - ksuyA

hurt

 kšikšA

curly

 pakcA

comb

 kmųkA

snare

 kni

arrive

s spayA

wet

 stustA

tired

 ską

melt

 - - scu

bashful

 smuna

fine

 sni

cold

š špą

cooked

 štuštA

salty

 škatA

play

 - - šcųka

lazy

 šma

deep

 šno

melt

x xpą

soaked

 xtayetu

evening

 - - - xcina

tattered

 xma

sleepy

 xni

have a sore

m - - - - - - - mnA

smell

Grammar

Morphology

Morphological processes for Assiniboine language are primarily agglutinating.[7] 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

Examples from Levin (1964).[10] 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 position 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.[6]

škóškobena wãži hokšína že yúda.

banana a boy DET ate A banana ate the boy. The boy ate a banana. - preferred translation

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]

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 [6]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Assiniboine at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Assiniboine". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ For the usage of the term “nakona” by Fort Peck's Assiniboine, cf. Fort Peck Community College and NHE
  4. 1 2 3 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
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. 1 2 3 4 West, Shannon L. (2003). Subjects and Objects in Assiniboine Nakoda (Doctoral dissertation). University of Victoria.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Cumberland, Linda (2005). A grammar of Assiniboine: a Siouan language of the Northern Plains (Ph.D. Thesis). Indiana University.
  8. ↑ Ethnologue (cf. above).
  9. ↑ 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
  10. 1 2 Levin, N. B. (1964).The Assiniboine language. Bloomington: Indiana University.
  11. ↑ Riggs, S. R. (1892). A Dakota-English Dictionary. Washington: US Government Printing

Content Notes

  1. ↑ 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)

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