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Central Algonquian languages

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The Algonquian languages ( / æ l ˈ ɡ ɒ ŋ k ( w ) i ə n / al- GONG -k(w)ee-ən ; also Algonkian ) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of the languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Indigenous Ojibwe language (Chippewa), which is a senior member of the Algonquian language family. The term Algonquin has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik ( pronounced [ɛlæˈɡomoɡwik] ), "they are our relatives/allies".

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25-502: The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family , itself a member of the Algic family . Though the grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping, not a genetic grouping. In other words, the languages are grouped together because they were spoken near one another, not because they are more closely related to one another than to other Algonquian languages. Within

50-449: A noun, that it must be a purely linguistic characterization. Anthropological linguists have conversely argued the strong connection between animacy and items viewed as having spiritual importance. Another important distinction involves the contrast between nouns marked as proximate and those marked as obviative . Proximate nouns are those deemed most central or important to the discourse, while obviative nouns are those less important to

75-459: A single word. Ex: ( Menominee ) paehtāwāēwesew "He is heard by higher powers" ( paeht - 'hear', - āwāē - 'spirit', - wese - passivizer, - w third-person subject) or ( Plains Cree ) kāstāhikoyahk "it frightens us". These languages have been extensively studied by Leonard Bloomfield , Ives Goddard , and others. Algonquian nouns have an animate/inanimate contrast: some nouns are classed as animate , while all other nouns are inanimate . There

100-524: A thickness of more than 6,000 feet (1.8  km). As the molten rock came to the surface, the Earth's crust gradually sank into the space left by the rising lava. The Columbia River Basalt Group consists of seven formations: The Steens Basalt, Imnaha Basalt , Grande Ronde Basalt, Picture Gorge Basalt, Prineville Basalt, Wanapum Basalt, and Saddle Mountains Basalt. Many of these formations are subdivided into formal and informal members and flows. The subsidence of

125-652: Is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains , cut through by the Columbia River . During late Miocene and early Pliocene times, a flood basalt engulfed about 63,000 square miles (160,000 km ) of the Pacific Northwest, forming a large igneous province . Over a period of perhaps 10 to 15 million years, lava flow after lava flow poured out, ultimately accumulating to

150-433: Is closer to Ojibwe-Potawatomi than it is to Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo." The languages are listed below along with dialects and subdialects. This classification follows Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999). Algonquian languages Speakers of Algonquian languages stretch from the east coast of North America to the Rocky Mountains . The proto-language from which all of the languages of the family descend, Proto-Algonquian ,

175-545: Is incorrect, and that Central Algonquian (in which he includes the Plains Algonquian languages) is a genetic subgroup, with Eastern Algonquian consisting of several different subgroups. However, this classification scheme has failed to gain acceptance from other specialists in the Algonquian languages. Instead, the commonly accepted subgrouping scheme is that proposed by Ives Goddard (1994). The essence of this proposal

200-487: Is melting rock beneath the Columbia Plateau Province at the base of the lithosphere (the layer of crust and upper mantle that forms Earth's moving tectonic plates). In an effort to figure out why this area, far from a plate boundary, had such an enormous outpouring of lava, scientists established hardening dates for many of the individual lava flows. They found that the youngest volcanic rocks were clustered near

225-405: Is ongoing debate over whether there is a semantic significance to the categorization of nouns as animate or inanimate, with scholars arguing for it as either a clearly semantic issue, or a purely syntactic issue, along with a variety of arguments in between. More structurally inclined linguistic scholars have argued that since there is no consistent semantic system for determining the animacy of

250-673: Is sometimes said to have included the extinct Beothuk language of Newfoundland , whose speakers were both in geographic proximity to Algonquian speakers and who share DNA in common with the Algonquian-speaking Miꞌkmaq . However, linguistic evidence is scarce and poorly recorded, and it is unlikely that reliable evidence of a connection can be found. The Algonquian language family is known for its complex polysynthetic morphology and sophisticated verb system. Statements that take many words to say in English can be expressed with

275-448: Is that Proto-Algonquian originated with people to the west who then moved east, although Goddard did not attempt to identify a specific western urheimat for Proto-Algonquian in his 1994 paper. By this scenario, Blackfoot was the first language to branch off, which coincides well with its being the most divergent language of Algonquian. In west-to-east order, the subsequent branchings were: This historical reconstruction accords best with

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300-568: The Plateau region of Idaho and Oregon or the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains boundary of Montana , dropping off subgroups as people migrated. Goddard also points out that there is clear evidence for pre-historical contact between Eastern Algonquian and Cree-Montagnais, as well as between Cheyenne and Arapaho–Gros Ventre. There has long been especially extensive back-and-forth influence between Cree and Ojibwe. It has been suggested that

325-416: The boundary between the core and mantle . The concentrated heat triggers a plume hundreds of kilometers in diameter that ascends directly through to the surface of the Earth. The track of this hot spot starts in the west and sweeps up to Yellowstone National Park . The steaming fumaroles and explosive geysers are ample evidence of a concentration of heat beneath the surface. The hotspot is stationary, but

350-609: The "Core Central" into the Ojibwa-Potawatomi and Miami–Illinois group, and the Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo and Shawnee group; the hypothesis for the subgroup was based on lexical and phonological innovations. David J. Costa in his 2003 book The Miami-Illinois Language agrees with Rhodes and Goddard that Central Algonquian has a specific language sub-branch that he refers to as "Eastern Great Lakes" but in his assessment Costa also states "...there seems to be no evidence that Miami-Illinois

375-430: The "Eastern Great Lakes" languages – what Goddard has called "Core Central", e.g., Ojibwe–Potawatomi, Shawnee, Sauk–Fox–Kickapoo, and Miami-Illinois (but not Cree–Montagnais or Menominee) – may also constitute their own genetic grouping within Algonquian. They share certain intriguing lexical and phonological innovations. However, this theory has not yet been fully fleshed out and is still considered conjectural. Algonquian

400-499: The Algonquian family, only Eastern Algonquian is a valid genealogical group. Within the Central Algonquian grouping, Potawatomi and Chippewa, otherwise known as Ojibwe , are closely related and are generally grouped together as an Ojibwa-Potawatomi sub-branch. "Eastern Great Lakes" was first proposed by Richard Rhodes in 1988, and first discussed by Ives Goddard as "Core Central" in 1994. In Goddard's assessment, he divides

425-703: The Algonquian languages is their direct-inverse (also known as hierarchical ) morphosyntactic alignment , distinguishing between an unmarked voice where the subject outranks the object in a person hierarchy and a marked voice where the opposite relation obtains. Because Algonquian languages were some of the first with which Europeans came into contact in North America, the language family has given many words to English . Many eastern and midwestern U.S. states have names of Algonquian origin ( Massachusetts , Connecticut , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , etc.), as do many cities: Milwaukee , Chicago , et al. Ottawa ,

450-605: The North American plate is moving over it, creating a superb record of the rate and direction of plate motion. Part of the Columbia Plateau is associated with the Columbia Plateau ecoregion , part of the "Nearctic temperate and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands" ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome . Washington cities in the Columbia Plateau include: Oregon cities in

475-463: The Yellowstone Plateau and that the farther west they went, the older the lavas. Although scientists are still gathering evidence, a probable explanation is that a hot spot , an extremely hot plume of deep mantle material, is rising to the surface beneath the Columbia Plateau Province. Beneath Hawaii and Iceland , a temperature instability develops (for reasons not yet well understood) at

500-452: The capital of Canada , is named after the Algonquian nation, the Odawa people . For a more detailed treatment of geographical names in three Algonquian languages, see the external link to the book by Trumbull. Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is an important geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington , Oregon , and Idaho . It

525-482: The crust produced a large, slightly depressed lava plateau. The ancient Columbia River was forced into its present course by the northwesterly advancing lava. The lava, as it flowed over the area, first filled the stream valleys, forming dams that in turn caused impoundments or lakes. Entities found in these lake beds include fossil leaf impressions, petrified wood , fossil insects, and bones of vertebrate animals. Evidence suggests that some concentrated heat source

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550-491: The discourse. There are personal pronouns which distinguish three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), inclusive and exclusive first person plural , and proximate and obviative third persons. Verbs are divided into four classes: transitive verbs with an animate object (abbreviated "TA"), transitive verbs with an inanimate object ("TI"), intransitive verbs with an animate subject ("AI"), and intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject ("II"). A very notable feature of

575-440: The observed levels of divergence within the family, whereby the most divergent languages are found furthest west (since they constitute the earliest branchings during eastern migration), and the shallowest subgroupings are found furthest to the east (Eastern Algonquian, and arguably Core Central). This general west-to-east order is compatible with the proposal from J.P. Denny (1991) that Proto-Algonquian people may have moved east from

600-470: The separate main articles for each of the three divisions. Eastern Algonquian is a true genetic subgrouping. The Plains Algonquian and the Central Algonquian groups are not genetic groupings but rather areal groupings. Although these areal groups often do share linguistic features, these commonalities are usually attributed to language contact . Paul Proulx has argued that this traditional view

625-552: Was spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. There is no scholarly consensus about where this language was spoken. This subfamily of around 30 languages is divided into three groups according to geography: Plains , Central , and Eastern Algonquian . Of the three, only Eastern Algonquian constitutes a true genetic subgroup. The languages are listed following the classifications of Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999). Extinct languages are marked with †, and endangered languages are noted as such. For dialects and subdialects, consult

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