Ch.Orthography/ Word for "Chief", "Family"

Lance Foster ioway at earthlink.net
Tue Apr 17 01:43:44 UTC 2001


If they tackle Dakotan they have to learn at least one, probably several,
systems for the Dakotan dialect they decide on.  They

> may even have to learn a bit about several dialects, since the important
> references have in several different dialects.

What has been the most successful systems, in terms of community acceptance,
for ANY Siouan language? Anyone want to nominatre the one with the most
community acceptance?

>
>
> I tend to agree with Bob.  You'll have to pronounce the words for the kids
> anyway.  If anyone complains about the x's and what not, you should just
> tell them it's not English and some broadening of the mind may be
> required.  A colleague used to tell users "getting the answer to that
> requires an out-of-net experience."  This requires an out-of-English
> experience.

Again, use fo the x as in Jimm's system is simply not consistent with the
rest of the system. For example, ch, ny, ng, etc are all written with two
consonants. They could each be written with one (c, ñ, the "eng") if we want
to be consistent with the use of x. If we wish to use ch, ny, ng, why not use
kh? Not to pick on Jimm, but his and Lila's system uses "sh" not the "esh". I
am simply arguing for consistency either way we go. And we are also talking
about nonnative speakers and getting them interested rather than scared off.

>
>
> > This reminds me: wasn't there a list of the most common/necessary
> > terms (100? 200?) that a linguist developed when learning any
> > language? (like run, hot, eat, etc)
>
> Not really.  There's a supposedly 'Basic" vocabulary list for English, but
> it's very peculiar to English. ...In these
> lists there are a fair number of egregious Indo-European or European
> dependencies in the vocabulary as well as Western European dependencies in
> the implicit assumptions about the grammar.

A point I hadn't thought of. I was remembering a film I saw as an undergrad
where a linguist, using NO english was able to elicit a basic vocabulary and
basic grammar using nothing but gestures and repetition. Does this sound
familiar?

--
Lance Michael Foster
Email: ioway at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~ioway
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