Does Anyone Have Some Knowledge Of Native North American Languages?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve developed an interest in Native North American Languages recently, but it’s impossible to come across them where I live. So, I was wondering whether anyone here had some experience encountering them, learning them, or even better, speaking them with some fluency.

I’d be interested in knowing… well, pretty much anything about them, from how they “sound” to you to the intriguing morphosyntactic features they display. Anything, really, from the most casual remark to bona fide scientific research, as long as it’s first-hand experience.

I’m mostly interested in the Algonquian and Iroquoian families, as well as to a lesser extent Na-Dene (Dene-Yeniseian?), Uto-Aztecan and Salishan.

2

I’ve heard Plains Cree a fair bit. Hard to describe, other than to say it sounds completely foreign to me.

When I hear Italian or Spanish, the rhythm sounds familiar and I can sometimes pick out words. Same for German and Dutch; it feels like I should be able to understand it.

I don’t get that at all with Cree.

3

I’ve been using the Lenape Talking Dictionary to learn Lenape. It includes lessons. I’m also learning Navajo on Duolingo.

The easiest American Indian language for adult learners is said to be Quechua (except it’s South American, sorry). Its grammar rather resembles European languages.

Salishan languages have complicated sound systems. As for Uto-Aztecan, there’s a song in Yaqui I’ve been trying to find out more about.

4

I know a retired linguist who was an expert in the Algonquian language group. I’ve never heard him speak it, but depending where on Earth you are maybe I could arrange an intro. He’s getting old and would love a chance to bend an ear on this topic. Getting away might be your hardest task.

5

When I was in grad school, a professor (a great biographer of Thoreau and Emerson) said to us “Anyone who doesn’t know what to do for a dissertation, study a dying Native language and write up a book length description of its vocabulary and grammar.”

No one took him up on the offer, as far as I know.

6

on a tangent:

Phillip Glass’ take on it:

Koyaanisqatsi = Hope Indian (?) for “world in turmoil/out of balance”

7

I was writing historical fiction about mid 18th-century southwestern Pennsylvania, so I got busy informing myself about the Unami form of Lenape that was spoken in that place at that time (before they moved west to the Ohio Country, to Coshocton).

I took to coining names of places in Lenape, based on what is historically known. For example, Brownsville, Pennsylvania, was an important river crossing in Indian times, and it was known as the Red Stone place for its red sandstone outcrops; in Unami that translates to Màxkahsënink /mʌxkahsəniŋk/.
Fort Duquesne, during the time some Lenape braves were allied with the French, was known as the fenced-in place, place of the enclosure, which translates to Menàxksink /meːnʌxksiŋk/.

The original Lenape sacred meeting ground on the Delaware River (Lenapei Sipu) was named Shackamaxon—from Lenape Sakimaksink ‘the Place of the Chiefs’. Today it’s known as Penn Treaty Park. In Sakimaksink you can see the word sakima ‘chief’ familiar as the root word of “sachem” and “sagamore.”

Note all these place names end in -ŋk. That’s the Lenape locative suffix, so that X-ŋk means ‘where X is’. Because stops became voiced following nasal sounds, -ŋk is commonly seen in place names as -ing, e.g. Hocking means ‘where the salt lick is’. Pymatuning means ‘where there’s a facility for steam bathing set up’.

I had fun finding out that Ohiopyle is from ahi òpihële, ‘it turns very white’ (the river rapids). Quittapahilla Creek is from kuwe ktepehële, ‘it flows out through the pines’.

I coined wingëlìndàmeskikwës /wiŋgəlɪndʌmeskikwəs/ from winkëlìntàm ‘happy’ (winkë ‘pleasant’ + lìntàm ‘mind’) + skikw ‘grass’ + -ës diminutive suffix, thinking it could have reached Pennsylvania by trade routes from Texas, so why not?

I wrote an invocation to the ancestors:
Nuhëmak manëtuwàk!
Nëmuxumsak manëtuwàk!
Kuxwisuwa ta ni.
Ndàpi. Këmëshalëlhumo.

Grandmother spirits!
Grandfather spirits!
I am your granddaughter.
I am here. I remember you.

to recite during my Memorial Day visit to Shackamaxon, an especially sacred moment for me.

8

Coshocton, Ohio, has an interesting etymology for the changes it went through, as well as its Muskingum River.

The original Unami Lenape name of the town was Koshaxkink ‘where there is a river crossing’. The present form was probably adapted as Koshaxktun ‘ferry’ (‘river-crossing device’).

The name of the Muskingum river originated from another Algonquian language, Shawnee. The Shawnee people had been there for ages; the Lenni Lenape moved there in the 18th century, though the region around the Ohio River had been considered their ancient homeland before they moved to the East Coast, where they lived at European contact. The original Shawnee name was Mshkikwam ‘swampy ground’ (mshkikwi- ‘swamp’ + -am ‘earth’). But in Lenape it was transformed by folk etymology into, or was taken to mean, ‘elk’s eye’ (mus wəshkinkw ), as if < mus ‘elk’ + wəshkinkw ‘its eye’. You already know the Eastern Algonquian name for elk: Moose.

9

Ohioans and Bob Dylan fans will be interested to know that Ashtabula is from Lenape ashte-pihële, ‘always enough (fish) to go around, to be given away’,[6] a contraction from apchi ‘always’[7] + tepi ‘enough’ + hële (verb of motion), referring to the Ashtabula River.

10

My Mother, from Sask, spoke a little, and I used to have a few words.

11

Correction, I mixed up two different words.
Hocking means ‘where the fields are’, from haki ‘land’ + -ŋk.
Mahoning means ‘where the salt lick is’, from mahaonink ‘where animals gather’.
We regret the error.

12

I’ve read that 19th-century white people were so impressed by the sound of Cree spoken by orators that they compared it to Latin in terms of sounding august with gravitas. I think they meant Plains Cree, not sure.

13

I would say it sounds very dignified. But I’ve only heard it in formal settings.

14

Last time I was driving in Alberta, I listened to the country station CFWE which had some DJ talk and commercials in indigenous languages (Wikipedia suggests Cree and Dene).

15

Do you mean Hopi?

16

yes, for whatever reason - if I add a YT link I cannot edit the post for spelling (and stupidity)

17

Languages like Cree and Innu are pretty hard. They are not very similar to other languages I have studied. However, the Canadian governments support them, more or less, and good materials (phrase books, lessons, etc.) are available.

18

I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you this tremendously resourceful site: http://www.native-languages.org/

19

Go to the following website:

https://glottolog.org/glottolog/language

Put in North American for the macro-area and you’ll be given the 783 languages of North America.

20

Here is a YouTube of an older lady speaking Cree for a minute or so before switching to English. I’d never heard the language before. It puts me in mind of Japanese spoken a bit more slowly than typical, but with a bunch of extra ch- & sh-like sounds.

CAUTION: Very Loud Intro Music, then normal level for body of vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFUQyidy46w