Arapahoan languages
Encyclopedia
The Arapahoan languages are a subgroup of the Plains
group of Algonquian languages
. Nawathinehena
, Besawunena, and Ha'anahawunena are extinct and Arapaho
and Gros Ventre
are both endangered. Besawunena, is only attested from a wordlist collected by Kroeber, differs only slightly from Arapaho, but a few of its sound changes resemble those seen in Gros Ventre. It had speakers among the Northern Arapaho as recently as the late 1920s. There are no recordings or attestations of Ha'anahawunena.
Plains Algonquian languages
The Plains Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though this grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping rather than a genetic one...
group of Algonquian languages
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
. Nawathinehena
Nawathinehena language
Nawathinehena is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken among the Arapaho people. It had a phonological development quite different from either Gros Ventre or Arapaho proper. It has been identified as the former language of the Southern Arapaho, who switched to speaking Arapaho proper in...
, Besawunena, and Ha'anahawunena are extinct and Arapaho
Arapaho language
The Arapaho language or hinono'eitiit is a Plains Algonquian language spoken almost entirely by elders in Wyoming, and to a much lesser extent in Oklahoma. It is in great danger of becoming extinct. As of 1996, there were approximately 1,000 speakers of theNorthern Arapaho...
and Gros Ventre
Gros Ventre language
Atsina is the moribund Algonquian ancestral language of the Gros Ventre tribe in Montana. The last fluent speaker died in 1981. Atsina is the name applied by specialists in Algonquian linguistics...
are both endangered. Besawunena, is only attested from a wordlist collected by Kroeber, differs only slightly from Arapaho, but a few of its sound changes resemble those seen in Gros Ventre. It had speakers among the Northern Arapaho as recently as the late 1920s. There are no recordings or attestations of Ha'anahawunena.
External links
- Ethnologue entry for Arapaho languages
- "Arapaho" at Native-languages.org
- "Gros Ventre" at Native-languages.org