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Vowels and Semivowels in Algonkian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Mary R. Haas
Mary R. Haas*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Extract

The Algonkian family of languages, with its great geographical spread from the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson's Bay to the Carolinas, together with the inevitable proliferation of dialects (daughter languages) which accompanies such a spread, provides a goldmine of still largely un-exploited source material to exemplify a wide variety of principles in comparative linguistics. Unfortunately, only a part of the family has been intensively studied from the comparative point of view; as a consequence, many points of interest are likely to be represented in a fragmentary or indecisive fashion in the literature. Bloomfield's Algonkian studies were limited to four of the Central languages—Fox, Cree, Menomini, and Ojibwa; and Hockett in his follow-up work stayed within the same boundary, except for the addition of Potawatomi. Excellent results have been achieved by this limitation, but proper caution requires that the limitation be kept fully in mind whenever there is a temptation to generalize, or to compare developments in this family with those in other families.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 42 , Issue 2: April-June , June 1966 , pp. 479 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Wiyot and Yurok, languages spoken along the Pacific coast in northern California, are now accepted as cognate with the Algonkian family, but they are not, as far as we now know, additional daughter languages in the same sense as the languages used for illustration in this paper.

2 See Leonard Bloomfield, ‘Algonquian’, in Harry Hoijer and others, Linguistic structures of native America, VFPA 6.85–129 (1946).

3 Charles F. Hockett, 'Central Algonquian vocabulary: Stems in /k-/', IJAL 23.247–268 (1957); id., 'Potawatomi I, II, III, IV', IJAL 14.1–10, 63–73, 139–149, 213–225 (1948).

4 Henry M. Hoenigswald, ‘Are there universals of linguistic change?‘ Universals of language 23–41 (ed. by Joseph H. Greenberg; Cambridge, 1963).

5 The reconstruction *weθkwani is taken from Frank T. Siebert Jr., ‘Certain Proto-Algonquian consonant clusters’, Lg. 17.298–303 (1941). The languages shown in the lefthand column are derived by regular correspondences from *oθkoni, whereas languages in the righthand column require the reconstruction made by Siebert.

6 The following abbreviations for language names are used in this article: PA Proto-Algonkian; A Arapaho; Ab Abenaki; C Cree; Ch Cheyenne; D Delaware; D(l) Lenape dialect of Delaware; D(m) Munsee dialect of Delaware; F Fox; K Kickapoo; M Menomini; Mi Miami; Nt Natick; O Ojibwa; Pn Penobscot; Ps Passamaquoddy; Pt Potawatomi; Sh Shawnee. Wherever possible, forms are quoted from Bloomfield (1946), Hockett (1957), and Siebert (1941). Sources for other words are: P. R. Bishop Baraga, A dictionary of the Otchipwe language 2 (Montreal, 1878); Leonard Bloomfield, Eastern Ojibwa: Grammatical sketch, texts, and word list (Ann Arbor, 1957); id., The Menomini language (New Haven and London, 1962); Gordon M. Day, ‘A St. Francis Abenaki vocabulary’, IJAL 30.371–392 (1964); Mary P. Haas, unpublished word lists of Kickapoo and Passamaquoddy; Rev. Rodolphe Petter, English-Cheyenne dictionary (Kettle Falls, 1913–15); Zdeněk Salzmann, ‘Two brief contributions toward Arapaho linguistic history’, Anthrop. ling. 2:7.39–48, and other papers by the same author referred to therein; Allan R. Taylor, unpublished materials on Blackfoot; Frank T. Siebert, unpublished notes on Penobscot and Munsee Delaware; Charles F. Voegelin, Shawnee stems and the Jacob P. Dunn Miami dictionary, Indiana Historical Society, Prehistory Research Series 1.63–108, 135–167, 289–341, 345–406, 409–478 (1937–40); id., ‘The Lenape and Munsee dialects of Delaware, an Algonquian language’, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 49.34–37 (1940); Rev. E. A. Watkins, ed. by Ven. R. Faries, A dictionary of the Cree language (Toronto, 1938).

7 I am indebted to Frank T. Siebert for the reconstruction of ‘flying squirrel’ and its etymology; the first part is *pele·- (cf. *pele*wa ‘[edible] fowl‘).

8 The PA word for ‘squirrel’ is *anikwa: K anikwa, Sh hanikwa, Mi anikwa; also M -anikw as a noninitial stem.

9 The reconstruction in the lefthand column is taken from Bloomfield 1946: 105, no. 172. Additional forms are quoted from the sources mentioned in footnote 6. The vertical arrangement shows the regular sound correspondences, including those for Cheyenne and Arapaho. Arapaho also has a recent variant sítee.

10 Bloomfield 1946: 86, no. 5.

11 This loss has no relation to the regressive unvoicing and consequent loss of vowels and consonants which affects the end of the word.

12 Hoenigswald 1963: 34.

13 The accents of Passamaquoddy have not been worked out, but they may have phonemic significance as in Penobscot.

14 The Sh word has the voiceless allophone of /m/.

15 Ives Goddard, ‘The Eastern Algonquian intrusive nasal’, IJAL 31.220 (1965), no. 64.

16 It is also of interest that this and other types of ‘sequential’ evidence render completely obsolete the long-held notion that Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Blackfoot are very early offshoots of Proto-Algonkian, set off not only from one another but from all the rest of the daughter languages (usually lumped together as 'Central-Eastern'). See also my paper 'Wiyot-Yurok-Algonkian and problems of comparative Algonkian', to appear in IJAL.

17 Except for Plains Cree, which has /y/ from *l as well as *y, this statement also holds true of many of the daughter languages. Ojibwa, indeed, has no examples of word-inital /y/ (Bloomfield 1957: 10).

18 Siebert 1941: 300, Bloomfield 1946: 105.

19 C = consonant or initial ‘onset’, V = short vowel, S = stop or spirant (not nasal or semivowel).

20 Mary R. Haas, ‘Intermediary paradigmatic (vertical) reconstruction (illustrated from Cheyenne)‘, paper read at the Summer Meeting of the LSA, 1963.

21 Frank T. Siebert, private correspondence.

22 PA *a·T (T = stop consonant) and *anT have merged in Ch to ohT, e.g. hetohko ‘dish’ < PA *ola·kani, hotohke ‘star’ < *aθankwa, *aθa·nkwa. This is the type of evidence found in Cheyenne that indicates that reflexes of the so-called ‘intrusive’ nasal, said to be limited to the Eastern languages (Goddard, op.cit.), are found here too.

23 Fox and Kickapoo are close enough to be considered merely dialectal variants of the same ‘language’, Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo, and normally do not show this kind of variation. As far as I have been able to determine, Kickapoo regularly has /o/ where Fox has /a/ from initial *wa; otherwise they do not show different vocalic reflexes.