A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) - (Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas) by Linda A Cumberland (Hardcover)

About the Book

Linda A. Cumberland presents a new grammar for the Native American language Assiniboine, also known by the endonym Nakoda, a member of the Siouan language family.

Book Synopsis

A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) is the first complete grammar of the Native American language Assiniboine, also known by the endonym Nakoda, a member of the Siouan language family. It addresses all major grammatical categories, including phonology, nouns, verbs, adverbs, enclitics, determiners, syntax, and kinship terminology. It also includes groundbreaking analysis of motion verbs of coming and going, demonstrating that such verbs compose a closed system that is consistent in varying degrees across all Siouan languages.

Over the past century and a half, the classification of the Assiniboine language has suffered due to a complicated history regarding the Dakotan branch of the Siouan language family. Once spoken over a vast contiguous area of the northern plains, Assiniboine/Nakoda is used today among the Assiniboine people in and around Fort Belknap and Fort Peck in Montana and in five reserves in Saskatchewan. A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) establishes the singular basis of the language while also relating its unique features to other Great Plains American Indian languages.

Review Quotes

"The grammar presented here by Tųwį Linda is the foremost resource gathered and produced for the Nakoda language. Her work within Nakoda communities over decades has proven her determination to save a language. This resource, now updated, is an accurate and detailed grammar. Our tribe is forever grateful to Linda for her friendship and love."--Kenneth "Tuffy" Helgeson (Lodge Pole Nakoda), a Nakoda instructor at Aaniiih Nakoda College and at Hays Lodgepole High School on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

"A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) is an outstanding work that describes the phonological, grammatical, and syntactical structures of Nakoda, as well as some lexical peculiarities. Since this grammar is written within a descriptive framework, it is highly accessible and will be useful for both researchers and Nakoda-language teachers and students."--Vincent Collette, coauthor of A Concise Dictionary of Nakoda (Assiniboine)

"I believe this will become the definitive grammar on Assiniboine, and as such, it will serve a very important role in language maintenance and revitalization programs."--John Boyle, associate professor of linguistics at Fresno State University

About the Author

Linda A. Cumberland is a former language director at the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma. She has received grants for language preservation research from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.