The Arapaho language or "hinono'eitiit" (also "Arapahoe Language" and "hiinonoei'tiit") is a Plains Algonquian language (an areal rather than genetic grouping) spoken almost entirely by elders in Wyoming, and to a much lesser extent in Oklahoma.^[1] It is in great danger of becoming extinct. As of 1996, there were approximately 1,000 speakers of the Northern Arapaho. ^[2] In 2008, it was reported that a school had been opened to teach the language to children. 22 children are currently being taught there. The school was established as a matter of urgency, as no person aged under 55 was fluent in Arapaho at that point.^[3]

Arapaho has diverged very significantly phonologically from its posited proto-language, Proto-Algonquian (Proto-Algonquian *ma?kwa, "bear," became Arapaho wox, and Proto-Algonquian *we?ari, "her husband," became Arapaho ííx).

Sounds

As mentioned above, the Plains Algonquian languages are phonologically very distinct from other people in the great basin speak Algonquian languages and from Proto-Algonquian.

Vowels

Arapaho has a series of four short vowels and four long vowels . It also contains three diphthongs, /ei/, , and /ie/.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Arapaho is given in the table below. /j/ is normally transcribed as <y>, as <c>, as <'>, and is sometimes written <3>.

Prosody

Arapaho is a tonal language. Vowels can have a mid tone (unmarked), high tone (marked with an acute accent), or falling tone (marked with a circumflex).

Grammar

Gros Ventre

Gros Ventre (also known as Atsina), a divergent dialect of Arapaho or closely related language, has three additional phonemes, , , and , and lacks the velar fricative /x/.

Other Dialects

Nawathinehena was another language of the Arapahoan group, with 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 the 19th century. However, the language is not well attested, being documented only in a vocabulary collected in 1899 by Alfred L. Kroeber from the Oklahoma Arapaho. Among its divergent features is the appearance of Proto-Algonquian */s/ as /t/.

Besawunena, also 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.

External links

• Ethnologue Report for Arapaho
• The Arapaho Language
• Arapaho Language Archives, with many dialogues and narratives in Arapaho with glosses

References

• Goddard, Ives. 1974. "An Outline of the Historical Phonology of Arapaho and Atsina." International Journal of American Linguistics 40:102-16.
• Goddard, Ives. 2001. "The Algonquian Languages of the Plains". Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 13: 71-79.
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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