Assiniboine language

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Assiniboine
Nakʰóda
Native to Canada, United States
Region Southern Saskatchewan in Canada and Montana in the United States
Ethnicity 3,500 Assiniboine (2007)[1]
Native speakers
150 (2007)[1]
Siouan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 asb
Glottolog assi1247[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Assiniboine language (also Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakota, Nakoda or Nakona[3]) is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken as a first tongue by around 150 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly.[4] The name Asiniibwaan is an Ojibwe term meaning "Stone Siouans".

Classification[edit]

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.

Phonology[edit]

Labial Alveolar Palatal or
postalveolar
Velar Glottal
Stop Aspirated tʃʰ
Ejective tʃʼ ʔ
Voiced b d ɡ
Fricative Voiceless s ʃ x h
Ejective ʃʼ
Voiced z ʒ ɣ
Nasal m n
Approximant w j

There are five oral vowels in Assiniboine, i, u, e, o, and a, and three nasal vowels, į, ų, and ą.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Assiniboine at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Assiniboine". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  3. ^ For the usage of the term “nakona” by Fort Peck's Assiniboine, cf. Fort Peck Community College and NHE
  4. ^ Ethnologue (cf. above).

External links[edit]