Research on Biloxi

[Jack Martin]

Does anyone have a copy of Einaudi that they'd like to sell (the Garland
version)?  I have to use interlibrary loan every time I consult it...

Jack Martin
jbmart at wm.edu

At 11:55 PM 11/18/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Pamela Munro wrote:
> >      My name is Tony Lopez and I'm about to start some personal
> > research on Biloxi.  Not wanting me to reproduce research that someone
> > else has done or is already working on, Dr. Munro has suggested that I
> > ask the members of this list if they or someone else they know is
> > doing such work.
>
>Dorsey & Swanton, and Haas's comments thereon are basic, and the original
>materials in the NAA need to be considered because of editorial issues.
>Never take Swanton's analysis and classification by roots seriously.
>The best you can say about it is that it was rather premature.  I'd be
>tempted to say it was even ill-advised.
>
>The main publication since these has been Paul Ferris Einaudi's Biloxi
>Grammar (a Ph.D. diss. at the U of Colo).  This was published by Garland,
>but is now out of print.  The dissertation would be available from UMI,
>and the published version would be in libraries here and there.  There has
>been a good deal of mainly unpublished quibbling over Einaudi's analysis
>of the inflectional paradigms, articles, etc., in light of more recent
>understanding of such things in Siouan generally, and it is probably the
>case that her approach to normalizing the orthography by omitting
>diacritics has several undesirable affects, but this is essential, right
>after Dorsey & Swanton.  It is an important tool for bringing out the
>Siouan structure of the data, somewhat obscured by Swanton's massaging.
>Unfortunately, I have the impression that Einaudi, like Kennard, having
>finished a dissertation on a Siouan language, has been resolute in
>distancing herself from further work on the language, the family, and even
>linguistics.
>
>Probably the main individuals working on Biloxi in recent years have been
>Robert Rankin (U of Ks) - especially phonology and morphology - and Dale
>Nicklas (independent scholar) - especially morphology and syntax.  For a
>list of Bob's papers, see John Boyle's bibliogaphical web site.  I don't
>know how much of Dale's work is listed there.  Bob and Dale have have both
>considered Muskogean influences in very useful ways, e.g., I think it was
>Dale who first showed that Biloxi uses switch reference, though I think
>Bob has also looked at this, and so has Randy Graczyk.  Bob has summarized
>Muskoean influence on lexicon, phonology and morphology.  Bob has also
>been able to use his knowledge of comparative Siouan to good effect, e.g.,
>in recognizing the existence of such things as aspirated stops.
>
>I know that Dick Carter has looked some at morphological issues, e.g.,
>theme final morphophonemics, (-di as *...r-e), but I don't think he's
>published any of this.  I think it is anticipated that a lot of it will
>figure in the Comparative Siouan Dictionary's introduction.
>
>I've looked some at morphology but not in any depth.  I wrote a working
>paper on the causative, and I've tried to sort out the paradigms based on
>a consideration of the usual inflectional classes.  I think Einaudi tended
>to overemphasize the simplying effects of the restructuring and to try to
>explain with phonological rules what is essentially the result of
>extensive analogical change in the already irregular pardigms of (late)
>Proto-Siouan.  I think my only publication on this was working paper on
>*r-stems.
>
>Except that I don't really know what Dale Nicklas is up to, I don't think
>anyone is working on Biloxi in a concentated way at the moment.
>
>I think that except for Dick Carter's and Dale Nicklas's work, pretty much
>everything is listed at Boyle's site.  However, most of it is probably
>going to be very difficult to lay hands on.