Gros Ventre language

Atsina, or Gros Ventre (also known as Ananin, Ahahnelin, Ahe and A’ani),[4] was the ancestral language of the Gros Ventre people of Montana. The last fluent speaker died in 2007,[1] though revitalization efforts are underway.

Gros Ventre
'ɔ'ɔ́ɔ́ɔ́naakíit'ɔ
Native to	United States
Region	Montana
Ethnicity	Gros Ventre
Extinct	2007, with the death of Theresa Lamebull[1]
Revival	45 self-identified speakers as of 2009-2013[2]
Language family	Algic Algonquian Arapahoan Gros Ventre
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ats
Glottolog	gros1243
ELP	Gros Ventre[3]
Historical extent of the language

History

Atsina is the name applied by specialists in Algonquian linguistics. Arapaho and Atsina are dialects of a common language usually designated by scholars as "Arapaho-Atsina". Historically, this language had five dialects, and on occasion specialists add a third dialect name to the label, resulting in the designation, "Arapaho-Atsina-Nawathinehena".[1] Compared with Arapaho proper, Gros Ventre had three additional phonemes /tʲ/, /ts/, /kʲ/, and /bʲ/, and lacked the velar fricative /x/.

Theresa Lamebull taught the language at Fort Belknap College (now Aaniiih Nakoda College), and helped develop a dictionary using the Phraselator when she was 109.[5]

As of 2012, the White Clay Immersion School at Aaniiih Nakoda College was teaching the language to 26 students, up from 11 students in 2006.[4][6]

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	plain	b		t		k	ʔ
	palatalized	bʲ		tʲ		kʲ
Fricative			θ	s			h
Affricate				ts	tʃ
Nasal				n
Approximant		w			j

Vowels

	Short	Long
Close	ɪ	iː
Mid	ɛ	eː
Back	ɔ	oː
	ʊ	uː

[7]

Notes

1. Mithun 336
2. "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English". www.census.gov. US Census Bureau. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
3. Endangered Languages Project data for Gros Ventre.
4. "Immersion School is Saving a Native American Language". Indian Country Today Media Network. 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
5. "The Phraselator II". The American Magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-08-07. Retrieved 2013-05-12.
6. Boswell, Evelyn (2008-12-04). "MSU grads preserve a native language, keep tribal philosophies alive". MSU News Service. Archived from the original on 2013-03-03. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
7. Salzmann, Zdeněk (1969). Salvage Phonology of Gros Ventre (Atsina).

References

• Mithun, Marianne (1999) The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Malainey, Mary E. 2005. The Gros Ventre/Fall Indians in historical and archaeological interpretation. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 25(1):155-183.

External links

• Native Languages of the Americas: Gros Ventre (Ahe, Ahahnelin, Aane, Atsina)
• Gros Ventre Language Word Sets, Fort Belknap College
• Gros Ventre Dictionary
• Capriccioso, Rob (2007-10-09). "The Phraselator II". The American Magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-08-07. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
• "OLAC, Open Language Archives Community: Gros Ventre". Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
• "A Basic Guide in Tri-Lingual Education in Gros Ventre and Assiniboine". Retrieved 2012-07-18.