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

Rankin, Robert L rankin at ku.edu
Tue Apr 17 15:00:38 UTC 2001


> What has been the most successful systems, in terms of
> community acceptance,

For Dakotan, the one the Bible was translated into. But not for linguistic
reasons, obviously. The Riggs system has probably been around the longest
too.

I still see no point in changing Jimm's system; it will just make the
dictionary inaccessible. I suppose "kh" would work for /x/ in parallel with
"gh" for gamma. Aspiration isn't being written as such, so kh is available.

As for "ng", Pam's suggestion is good. I discovered it's used a lot in
Australia and the SW Pacific (ng/ngg).  But since all "ng" sounds in Chiwere
actually originate in /ng/ sequences, maybe leaving it alone would work well
enough. Or you could spell it "nh" to parallel the other diacritic uses of
"h", but, again, I'd stick with the dict. for practical reasons.

Bob



More information about the Siouan mailing list