Hidatsa language
| Hidatsa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | United States |
| Region | North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota |
| Ethnicity | Hidatsa |
| Native speakers | 508 (2000 census)[1] 100 and decreasing (1986 SIL) |
| Language family |
Siouan
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hid |
Hidatsa /hɪˈdætsə/[2] is an endangered Siouan language, closely related to the Crow language. It is spoken by the Hidatsa tribe, primarily in North Dakota and South Dakota.
A description of Hidatsa-Mandan culture, including a grammar and vocabulary of the language, was published in 1877 by Washington Matthews, a government physician who lived among the Hidatsa at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.[3]
More recently, the Hidatsa language was the subject of work in the generative grammar tradition.[4]
Sacagawea [edit]
Linguists working on since the 1870s have considered the name of Sacagawea, guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, to be of Hidatsa origin. The name is a compound of two common Hidatsa nouns, cagáàga [tsaɡáàɡa] 'bird' and míà [míà] 'woman'. The compound is written as Cagáàgawia 'Bird Woman' in modern Hidatsa orthography, and pronounced [tsaɡáàɡawia] (/m/ is pronounced [w] between vowels in Hidatsa). The double /aa/ in the name indicates a long vowel and the diacritics a falling pitch pattern. Hidatsa is a pitch-accent language that does not have stress, therefore in the Hidatsa pronunciation all syllables in [tsaɡáàɡawia] are pronounced with roughly the same relative emphasis. However, most English speakers perceive the accented syllable (the long /aa/) as stressed. In faithful rendering of the name Cagáàgawia to other languages, it is advisable to emphasize the second, long syllable, not the last, as is common in English.[5]
References [edit]
- ^ Data Center States Results
- ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
- ^ Matthews, Washington (1877). Ethnography and philology of the Hidatsa Indians. Government Printing Office.
- ^ Matthews, G.H. (1965). Hidatsa Syntax. Mouton.
- ^ Park, Indrek. 2012. A Grammar of Hidatsa. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Indiana, Bloomington. p. 36.
External links [edit]
- Hidatsa Dictionary
- Hidatsa words
- Hidatsa Water Buster Account (including clan song)
- "N. Dakota school is trying to save Hidatsa language". Retrieved 2012-07-17.
- "A family's quest: Brothers lead effort to save Hidatsa language". Retrieved 2012-07-17.
- "Internet Archive Search: Hidatsa language". Retrieved 2012-07-17.
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