American Indian Studies - Advanced Guide

This up-to-date resource for the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Anishinaabe contains ancient and modern words and meanings.

Brendan Fairbanks examines the challenging subject of discourse markers in Ojibwe, one of the many indigenous languages in the Algonquian family. Mille Lacs elder Jim Clark once described the discourse markers as "little bugs that are holding on for dear life." For example, discourse markers such as mii and gosha exist only on the periphery of sentences to provide either cohesion or nuance to utterances. Fairbanks focuses on the discourse markers that are the most ubiquitous and that exist most commonly within Ojibwe texts. Much of the research on Algonquian languages has concentrated primarily on the core morphological and syntactical characteristics of their sentence structure. Fairbanks restricts his study to markers that are far more elusive and difficult in terms of semantic ambiguity and their contribution to sentences and Ojibwe discourse. Ojibwe Discourse Markers is a remarkable study that interprets and describes the Ojibwe language in its broader theoretical concerns in the field of linguistics. With a scholarly and pedagogical introductory chapter and a glossary of technical terms, this book will be useful to instructors and students of Ojibwe as a second language in language revival and maintenance programs.

The Dakota language owes much of its expansiveness to its verbs, or action words. Yet until now, students of Dakota have had few resources in verb usage and conjugation beyond nineteenth-century dictionaries compiled by missionaries. 550 Dakota Verbs provides students of Dakota--and the Lakota and Nakota dialects--the proper conjugations for 550 verbs from adi (to step or walk on) to zo (to whistle). Compiled by Dakota language teachers and students, the book is learner friendly and easy to use. It features clear explanations of Dakota pronoun and conjugation patterns, notes on traditional and modern usages, and handy Dakota-English and English-Dakota verb lists. Designed to enhance everyday conversation as well as contribute to the revitalization of this endangered language, 550 Dakota Verbs is an indispensable resource for all who are interested in Dakota and its dialects. An appendix features John P. Williamson's indispensable guide to verb formation and usage from An English-Dakota Dictionary.