Assiniboine language

The Assiniboine language (; also known as Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakota, Nakoda, Nakon or Nakona, or Stoney) is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains. The name Assiniboine comes from the term , from Ojibwe, meaning 'Stone Siouans'. The reason they were called this was 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). 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: as opposed to Dakʰóta or Lakʰóta, and or as opposed to or ). 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.

File:The Family Tree.png

The Siouan Family of Languages

D-N-L classification system

The Assiniboine language (Nakota), the Dakota language and the Lakota language are usually classified into a group with D-N-L subgroup classification. As suggested by the name of the system, the variation in pronunciations of certain words follows the D-N-L rule. A typical example is given below:

Language group	'greasy'
Santee-Sisseton
Yankton-Yanktonai
Teton
Assiniboine
Stoney

Santee-Sisseton and Yankton-Yanktonai are languages that belong to the Dakotan group and Teton is a language in the Lakotan group. The table above illustrates a typical variation amongst these three languages. Just as the name of these three tribes suggest, the Dakota language, the Lakota language and the Nakota (Assiniboine) language have respective inclinations towards , , and in some substitutable consonants.

Arguments against the classification system

Some scholars argue that the D-N-L classification system may not be totally accurate due to the non-rigidness of the substitution form. Siouan Indians live on an expansive continuum such that the distinction between different languages does not manifest in a rigid, clear-cutting criterion. Historically, linguists have debated on Yankton-Yanktonai languages and their proper positions into the D-N-L classification system, but the coexistence of and phonemes made such classification doubtful. This example of lexical difference between the languages of the Siouan group illustrates another possible distinction besides the D-N-L variations.

Language group	'horse'
Santee-Sisseton
Yankton-Yanktonai
Teton
Assiniboine
Stoney

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.

Dialect group	Self-designation	Political designation
Santee-Sisseton	Dakhóta	Sioux
Yankton-Yanktonai	Dakȟóta	Sioux
Teton	Lakȟóta	Sioux
Assiniboine	Nakhóta	Assiniboine
Stoney	Nakoda	Stoney

Geographic distribution

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

• Canada
  • Alberta
  • Manitoba
  • Saskatchewan
• United States
  • Minnesota
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • North Dakota
  • South Dakota

Reservation or reserve	Dialect
Alberta
Alexis	Stoney / Nakoda / Isga
Big Horn	Stoney / Îyârhe Nakoda / Nakoda
Eden Valley	Stoney / Îyârhe Nakoda / Nakoda
Paul	Stoney / Nakoda / Isga
Stoney (Morley)	Stoney / Îyârhe Nakoda / Nakoda
Saskatchewan
Carry the Kettle	Assiniboine / Nakhóta
Moose Woods (White Cap)	Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) / Dakhóta / Dakȟóta
Mosquito-Grizzly Bear's Head	Assiniboine / Nakhóta
Sioux Wahpeton (Round Plain)	Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) / Dakhóta / Dakȟóta
Standing Buffalo	Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) / Dakhóta / Dakȟóta
Whitebear	Assiniboine / Nakhóta
Wood Mountain	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Manitoba
Birdtail	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Oak Lake	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Sioux Valley	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Sioux Village-Long Plain	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
North Dakota
Devil's Lake	Sioux (Sisseton, Yanktonai) / Dakhóta / Dakȟóta
Standing Rock	Sioux (Yanktonai) / Dakȟóta
South Dakota
Cheyenne River	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Crow Creek	Sioux (Yanktonai) / Dakȟóta
Flandreau	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Lower Brule	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Pine Ridge	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Rosebud	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Sisseton	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Standing Rock	Sioux (Teton) / Lakȟóta
Yankton	Sioux (Yankton) / Dakȟóta
Nebraska
Santee	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Minnesota
Lower Sioux	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Prairie Island	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Prior Lake	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Upper Sioux	Sioux (Santee) / Dakhóta
Montana
Fort Belknap	Assiniboine / Nakhóta
Fort Peck	Assiniboine, Sioux (Yanktonai, Sisseton) / Nakhóta / Dakȟóta / Dakhóta

Official status

The Assiniboine language is not a government-recognized official language of any state or region where Assiniboine people live. There are two reservations located in Montana, but the official language of the state is English. An estimate of native speakers ranges from less than 50, to about 100, to about 150 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. A 2021 study of Indigenous languages in Canada put Assiniboine at 350 speakers.

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.

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal or postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	Plain	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Ejective	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	Voiceless		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Ejective		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Voiced		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

The affricates and stops of Assiniboine are often described as voiced rather than voiceless, due to intervocalic voicing rules which result in surface voiced forms.

Oral vowels

Character used	IPA symbol	Assiniboine pronunciation
i	i	i as in police
u	u	oo as in book
e	e	e as in a in mate
o	o	o as in vote
a	a	a as in father

Nasal vowels

Character	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, , and three nasal vowels, .

Words that follow the above rules:

• 'hill'
• 'hair'
• 'fog'
• 'otter'
• 'heavy'
• 'rice'
• 'to sneeze'

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:

		Second
		p	t	k	s	š	c	m	n
First	p	-	Template:Interlinear	-	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	-	-
	t	-	-	Template:Interlinear	-	-	-	-	-
	k	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	-	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
	s	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	-	-	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
	š	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	-	-	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
	x	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	-	-	-	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
	m	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Template:Interlinear

Grammar

Morphology

Morphological processes for Assiniboine language are primarily agglutinating. 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.

Morphophonemics

Examples from Levin (1964).

Contraction->When two syllabics come into contact they contract as in:

+ >

+ >

+ >

Phoneme loss: Syllabics

when is in medial position between and :

>

when is in the medial position between and :

>

when is in medial position between and :

>

Phoneme loss: semi-syllabics

> when

follows

Phoneme loss: non-syllabics

is in medial position between and or and or and or and

>

Phoneme shift: syllabics

> before

Phoneme shift: non-syllabics

When -- is in medial position between and

>

When -- is in medial position between and

>

When is in medial position between and

>

Nasalization loss exists as follows:

>

Syllable loss occurs as follows:

> Ex) 'to pay' so, + + > 'I pay'

Syntactic contraction: personal inflectional morphemes

'I' + 'you' > 'I...you';

Syntactic contraction with verbal themes occurs as follows:

+ – > c;

Syntactic alternation

> in verbal theme

> in nomial theme

> with the future suffix;

Syntax

Assiniboine has SOV word order. The order of elements may differ from 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 a native speaker, and to get the OSV reading out of it the object must be stressed, for example if the sentence was given as a reply to the question 'What did the boy eat?'. Template:InterlinearClass 1

1st person+singular

2nd person

Class 2

1st person+singular

2nd person

For both class 1 and 2

1st person-singular

3rd person

3rd person

1st person + singular subject/ 2nd person object

Vocabulary

1. – one
2. – two
3. – three
4. – four
5. – five
6. – six
7. – seven
8. – eight
9. – nine
10. – ten
11. – black
12. – white
13. – red
14. – blue

More words can be found in the Dakota-English Dictionary.

External links

• A video of Fred Spyglass (Mosquito First Nation) counting
• Video on Assiniboine history
• Language Geek:Assiniboine
• Native Languages: Assiniboine
• Online dictionary of Assniboine, American Indian Studies Research Institute