Siouan language family tree representation.
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Siouan language family tree representation.
Read MoreThe sign language of the North American Plains Indians was in use from Manitoba in Canada in the northern Plains to New Mexico in the south, and it was used to overcome language barriers between individuals or groups of the various tribes.
Read MoreAt least seven regions around the Urals are favoured among scholars as original home area of Proto-Uralic peoples. Similarly, etymology of Uralic languages is disputed or in parts apparently non-determinable. This article summarizes traditional approaches to historical linguistics concerning Uralic and specifically Finno-Ugric.
Read MoreThis article describes two minor shortcomings in current Omaha-Ponca notation with regard to nasalized sounds.
Read MoreA semi-abstract animation involving several connected rotating elements; resulting strange movements.
Read MoreMandan employs positional auxiliaries specifying the stance as sitting, lying, standing or moving, like other Siouan languages. Semantically implicit is durative aspect, which makes them candidates for aspect marking. These positional auxiliaries can be attached to nouns, thus classifying them by their positional configuration (stance).
Read MoreA very short ghost story as told by an Omaha, transcribed in Omaha with English gloss. A natural English translation is given at the bottom.
Read MoreA Ponca story told by the Omaha Indian Frank La Flèsche to James Owen Dorsey, published in 1890. The text is transcribed in Ponca using the Omaha-Ponca notation, interleaved with Dorsey’s English gloss. There is also a natural English translation of the story provided.
Read MoreTo establish, verify and prove connections between languages in historical linguistics, i.e. the affiliation to language families, the the primary and basic method is the comparative method. For (possible) distant etymologic relationship however additional specific[…]
Read MoreActive and stative verbs in Osage Osage is a split-intransitive, or active-stative language (cf. Lakhota, a split-intransitive (active-stative) language). “Stative verbs are those that do not inflect with the agent inflectional markers but instead use[…]
Read Morehépe ADJ, N ‘a small amount, ca. half a container; piece, part, some, a bit’ tóa ADJ, PRON ‘any’ / ‘some’ / marker of the head in a relative clause hó᷈õpa wĩ ‘some day, some[…]
Read MoreGhost story told by an Omaha to James Owen Dorsey, published in 1890. Original text in Omaha-Ponca, gloss and natural English translation.
Read MoreQuantifiers (all, some, many, none, every, etc.) play an essential role in semantics. In Chomskyan Universal Grammar theory quantifiers are considered archetypical language elements the notion of which is hard-wired into the brain and thus[…]
Read MoreSiouan languages and most of all the Degiha-branch languages feature a rich classificatory system based on positional markers. Different stages of grammaticalization can be observed within this system. The positional stative verbs ‘be sitting, be standing, be lying’ are inherently continuative by semantics and are predestined for an aspectual function.
Read MoreA common traditional practice among northern Siberian, but also northern European and even some Northern American peoples is the preservation of animal bones of game animals.
Read MoreThis article (part 2 of 2) describes the process of grammaticalization of the Omaha-Ponca (Siouan, North American) morpheme ama in terms of RRG, including examples employing it in its various stages of grammaticalization.
Read MoreThe three main syntactic functions of the Omaha-Ponca morpheme ama (auxiliary, article, evidential) in their various uses and their semantics and functional variants are analysed under the hypothesis of grammaticalization in different stages. This is part 1 of 2 parts of the article.
Read MoreAll information on the Osage vowel and consonantal systems stems from Quintero’s Osage Grammar (Quintero 2004: 16-42). The Osage vowel system front central back unrounded rounded nasal unrounded rounded unrounded rounded nasal high i (u)[…]
Read MoreLakota is a paramount example for a split-intransitive language (or active-stative language) distinguishing between active and stative verbs.
Read MoreActive-stative languages differ from accusative and ergative languages; they distinguish two basic types of verbs: stative verbs, i.e. verbs expressing states (being sick), and active verbs, i.e. verbs expressing actions (running). In active-stative languages, or[…]
Read MoreDuring the great migration of the Degiha tribes, after the Omaha and Ponca separated from the Osage and the Kansa, they continued north to the sacred pipestone quarries, where they encountered resistance by the Dakota and finally had to relocate to the Plains.
Read MoreA map depicting the geographic distribution of North American Indian language families / languages at the time of European contact.
Read MoreAn historic summary and basic linguistic information on the language of the Osage (wažáže ‘the water people’) people, including language examples.
Read MoreOrally transmitted history of the great Degiha tribes migration to their later homelands in the Great Plains (Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Kansa, Quapaw) and accounts by Europeans from the 16th and 17th century on.
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