Algonquian language spoken in US Midwest and northern Mexico
Fox
(known by a variety of different names, including
Mesquakie
(Meskwaki),
Mesquakie-Sauk
,
Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo
,
Sauk-Fox
, and
Sac and Fox
) is an
Algonquian
language, spoken by a thousand
Meskwaki
,
Sauk
, and
Kickapoo
in various locations in the
Midwestern United States
and in
northern Mexico
.
Dialects
[
edit
]
The three distinct dialects are:
- Fox
or
Meskwakiatoweni
(Meskwaki language)
[4]
(also called Mesquakie, Meskwaki)
- Sauk
or
Thakiwatoweweni
(Thakiwaki language) (also rendered Sac), and
- Kickapoo
(also rendered
Kikapu
; considered by some to be a closely related but distinct language
[5]
).
If Kickapoo is counted as a separate language rather than a dialect of Fox, then only between 200 and 300 speakers of Fox remain. Extinct Mascouten was most likely another dialect, though it is scarcely attested.
Revitalization
[
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]
Most speakers are elderly or middle-aged, making it highly
endangered
. The tribal school at the
Meskwaki Settlement
in Iowa incorporates bilingual education for children.
[6]
[7]
In 2011, the Meskwaki Sewing Project was created, to bring mothers and girls together "with elder women in the Meskwaki Senior Center sewing traditional clothing and learning the Meskwaki language."
[8]
Prominent scholars doing research on the language include
Ives Goddard
[9]
and
Lucy Thomason
of the Smithsonian Institution and
Amy Dahlstrom
of the University of Chicago.
Phonology
[
edit
]
The consonant phonemes of Fox are given in the table below. The eight vowel phonemes are: short
/a,
e,
i,
o/
and long
/aː,
eː,
iː,
oː/
.
Other than those involving a consonant plus
/j/
or
/w/
, the only possible consonant cluster is
/?k/
.
Until the early 1900s, Fox was a phonologically very conservative language and preserved many features of
Proto-Algonquian
; records from the decades immediately following 1900 are particularly useful to Algonquianists for this reason. By the 1960s, however, an extensive progression of phonological changes had taken place, resulting in the loss of intervocalic semivowels and certain other features.
[10]
Grammar
[
edit
]
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(
July 2019
)
|
Vocabulary
[
edit
]
Mesquakie
numerals
are as follows:
[11]
nekoti
|
one
|
nishwi
|
two
|
nethwi
|
three
|
nyewi
|
four
|
nyananwi
|
five
|
nekotwashika
|
six
|
nohika
|
seven
|
neshwashika
|
eight
|
shaka
|
nine
|
metathwi
|
ten
|
Writing systems
[
edit
]
Besides the
Latin script
, Fox has been written in two indigenous scripts.
[12]
Fox I
[
edit
]
"Fox I" is an
abugida
based on the cursive French alphabet (see
Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics
). Consonants written by themselves are understood to be syllables containing the vowel
/a/
. They are:
Syllable
ℓ
[a]
|
/pa/
|
t
|
/ta/
|
s
|
/sa/
|
d
|
/?a/
[b]
|
tt
|
/?a/
[c]
|
ŋ
[d]
|
/ya/
|
w
|
/wa/
|
m
|
/ma/
|
n
|
/na/
|
K
|
/ka/
|
g
[e]
|
/kwa/
[f]
|
- ^
Written as a tall loop, similar to a cursive b or l.
- ^
Character
⟨d⟩
for
/?/
derives from French
⟨ch⟩
.
- ^
Character
⟨tt⟩
for
/?/
derives from French
⟨tch⟩
.
- ^
The cursive form of capital I is a more graphically accurate approximation for
/ya/
; the actual character is a small clockwise loop with a long tail.
- ^
The actual character for
/gwa/
or
/kwa/
is shaped more like a cursive g or a with a long, winding tail that goes in a loop, almost like a figure-8 shape.
- ^
Character
⟨q⟩
for
/kw/
derives from French
⟨q(u)⟩
.
Vowels are written by adding dots to the consonant:
ℓ
|
/pa/
|
ℓ.
|
/pe/
|
ℓ·
|
/pi/
|
ℓ..
|
/po/
|
Fox II
[
edit
]
"Fox II" is a consonant?vowel alphabet. According to Coulmas,
/p/
is not written (as
/a/
is not written in Fox I). Vowels (or
/p/
plus a vowel) are written as cross-hatched tally marks.
Consonants (approximately)
+
|
/t/
|
C
|
/s/
|
Q
|
/?/
|
ı
|
/?/
|
n
|
/v/
[a]
|
?
|
/y/
|
??
|
/w/
|
田
|
/m/
|
#
|
/n/
|
C′
|
/k/
|
?C
|
/kw/
|
Vowels (approximately)
×
|
/a/
|
II
|
/e/
[b]
|
III
|
/i/
[c]
|
IIII
|
/o/
[d]
|
- ^
Actually like one script
n
stacked on another.
- ^
If the cross-hatching does not show up (perhaps because this line has been copied without formatting), this is like a small capital H with the cross-bar sticking out on either side.
- ^
Resembles Chinese ? but lower and wider.
- ^
Resembles Chinese ?, but lower and wider.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Fox and Sauk
at
Ethnologue
(24th ed., 2021)
Kickapoo
at
Ethnologue
(24th ed., 2021)
- ^
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia. (2015).
Lenguas indigenas en Mexico y hablantes (de 3 anos y mas) al 2015
.
Archived
2016-03-03 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Lenguas indigenas y hablantes de 3 anos y mas, 2020
Archived
2016-03-03 at the
Wayback Machine
INEGI. Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda 2020.
- ^
"Meskwaki Settlement School - Meskwakiatoweni (Meskwaki language)"
.
Archived
from the original on 2019-07-23
. Retrieved
2019-07-23
.
- ^
Moctezuma Zamarron, Jose Luis 2011,
El sistema fonologico del Kickapoo de Coahuila analizado desde las metodologias distribucional y funcional
Archived
2014-03-04 at the
Wayback Machine
. Mexico:
INALI
- ^
Meskwaki Settlement School Website,
"Meskwaki Settlement School Website"
. Archived from
the original
on 2009-02-16
. Retrieved
2009-02-03
.
- ^
"Meskwaki Education Network Initiative (MENWI)"
.
American Indian Studies Research Institute at Indiana University
.
Archived
from the original on 2004-01-03
. Retrieved
2012-07-19
.
- ^
Scandale, Maria (2011-02-21).
"Meskwaki Tribe Receives Grant for Sewing and Language Project - ICTMN.com"
.
Indian Country Today Media Network, ICTMN.com
.
Archived
from the original on 2024-05-26
. Retrieved
2012-07-19
.
- ^
Nelson, John (2008-07-27).
"Talking the talk"
.
WCFCourier.com
.
Archived
from the original on 2020-08-06
. Retrieved
2012-07-19
.
- ^
Language change in the speech community: change by loss of a stylistic register
, in
Historical Linguistics: Toward a Twenty-First Century Reintegration
(
ISBN
0521583322
), page 57
- ^
Sauk Counting Worksheet (Sac and Fox)
. Retrieved 17 March 2019 from
http://www.native-languages.org/numbers/sauk_numbers.htm
Archived
2019-10-28 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Coulmas (1999: 153–155)
- ^
Jones, William, 1906, p. 90
- ^
Jones, William, 1906, pp. 90-91
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Italics
indicate extinct languages * indicates extinct language in Oklahoma but still spoken elsewhere
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Indigenous
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Sign languages
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Non-Indigenous
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