Biloxi update

[David Kaufman]

Hi Bob:

Thanks for your reply and information.  This, of course, leads me to a few other questions:

--John R. Swanton and James Owen Dorsey, A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages. BAE Bulletin 47, 1912. Paula Einaudi's U. of Colorado dissertation from about '74 is based on D&S and is a good starting place for further work.  The Smithsonian has Dorsey's original Biloxi field notes which may contain additional information.--  Can the dictionary be special ordered perhaps through Borders or Amazon.com?  May I request a copy of Einaudi's dissertation from U of Colorado by phone or email to be sent to me?  Whom would I contact at the Smithsonian to get copies of Dorsey's field notes?

--I don't think another "dissertation length" treatise would cover it. It is
pretty much a career's worth of work for somebody.  I hope you or someone else will work with what's available.-- As I've said on this list before, I am quite willing and able to work on documenting a Siouan language and would appreciate the opportunity.  I already have some Siouan background with the VERY basic knowledge of Hiraca, which I took a passive interest in and have spoken with John B. about, and some VERY limited knowledge of Hocak based on copies of papers I received while in Chicago.

I would imagine documenting an "extinct" language has its own problems, since there are no longer native speakers left with which to confirm data.  But I suppose it also has its advantages in that one doesn't have to go through the long and difficult process of establishing rapports with native speakers and become involved in tribal politics which I've heard sometimes happens in field work.  It seems my main difficulty would just be in gathering, from a distance, all the extant materials and prior work that has been done.

I'm also curious about one other thing: since I currently have an MA (not a PhD) in linguistics, would it be too illogical to assume that once one is already involved in analysis of a language, that it would be easier to be accepted to a PhD-granting university?  I mean if I were to make a career of analyzing a language and would be developing the material for a dissertation anyway, and then some!, wouldn't this also suggest easier acceptance into a program?  I have actually considered applying to Canadian or British universities where I understand all that's required is research and a dissertation, and extra course work is not needed as is the case here in the US.  I'm nearly 42 years old, so of course time is an issue for me in achieving a PhD.  Not that I'm hellbent on achieving a PhD (it really doesn't matter that much to me either way) but since I'd already be doing the research and work that a dissertation would entail, why not?

Thanks again for your feedback and answering my many questions!

Dave

"R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu> wrote:
The place to start with Biloxi is John R. Swanton and James Owen Dorsey, A
Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages. BAE Bulletin 47, 1912. Paula
Einaudi's U. of Colorado dissertation from about '74 is based on D&S and is a
good starting place for further work. I reviewed the book for IJAL and have
written a few additional papers on Biloxi and Ofo. The Smithsonian has Dorsey's
original Biloxi field notes which may contain additional information. Gatschet
did a little earlier field work incorporated by Dorsey. Mary Haas located a
woman in about 1934 who could remember a few words of Biloxi and she published a
paper in IJAL in about 1968 entitled "The last words of Biloxi". Randy Graczyk
has a nice paper on Biloxi switch-reference particles in MS form.

There is much about Biloxi morphosyntax that needs clarification. Einaudi's
sketch is a beginning, but the definitive Biloxi grammar is yet to be written.
I don't think another "dissertation length" treatise would cover it. It is
pretty much a career's worth of work for somebody. Not me -- I have noodled
around with it, but I'm too old and have too much on my plate already. I hope
you or someone else will work with what's available.

Hint: Take Dorsey's two series of stop consonants (plain and with subscript
dots) seriously. They represent distinct phonological series that were missed
by virtually everybody after Dorsey.

Another hint: A single linguist per language guarantees totally inadequate
coverage. There is still much to analyze in Dakotan, and numerous linguists
have been trying to understand how that language works for well over 150 years.
The other Siouan languages haven't seen nearly as much work. There's plenty to
do with both texts and speakers in a variety of languages, and if it's done
right, both speakers and linguists will appreciate the effort.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kaufman"
To:
Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2004 6:54 PM
Subject: Re: Hidatsa update


> Thanks, John B., for your response and update on Hiraca. Glad to hear from
you and know you're still involved in the tribe's efforts to revitalize it.
>
> Also, I wanted to ask the list about Biloxi. I was informed that there are a
lot of texts available. I'm not sure if it's still spoken or if it's one of the
unfortunate extinct Siouan languages. Also, I'm wondering if anyone is
currently involved in its research. Since I'm still willing and able to work on
a Siouan language, and since right now it's rather difficult financially for me
to travel across the country to do fieldwork, I feel I'd be in a very good
position to study an "extinct" language which involves only written materials
and texts. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get more info on this
language and its current status and where I may be able to get hold of copies of
its texts?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dave Kaufman
>
> John Boyle wrote:
> Hello, I'm wondering what the status is right now of work on the Hiraca
(Hidatsa) and Hocak (Winnebago) languages. I have not seen list email
correspondence from John Boyle recently, whom I know was working on Hiraca (at
least he was a couple of years ago when I visited Chicago). I wouldn't mind
getting hold of any new documentation, dictionaries, updated grammars, or any
other materials which may have been recently published, or which I may obtain
for my own library and self-study purposes. I recently sent an email regarding
Cherokee and Hawaiian. (I take it by the lack of response that there are no
Siouanists out there also delving into these non-Siouan languages, or know of
anyone who does.) These are the two indigenous languages I'm putting most of my
efforts into right now, but I always keep an eye on Hiraca, Hocak, and some
other Siouan languages as well, although I'm not formally or professionally
involved in working on these languages. It's strictly for my own
> information and personal interest. Thanks. Dave
Kaufmandvklinguist2003 at yahoo.com
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
> Well, I'm still working on Hidatsa. I have just completed a dissertation
chapter on relative clauses which is more or less ready to go. It is pretty
theoretical with a lot of syntactic trees, but if anyone would like a copy, I'd
be happy to send a pdf. I have also spent a good chunk of the summer entering
Wes Jones' Word List/Dictionary into an excel spread sheet, so that it is
searchable. Unfortunately, I use fonts that are probably not compatible for PC
users. I hope to do a find and replace in the near future so that it is
available for the schools on the reservation and anyone else who would like a
copy. Throughout the coming year, I plan on checking all of the words and
adding more to the list. All in all, it is a really good word list although
some of the non-traditional words are not agreed upon by some people, so we'll
want to flag those.
> We are also working on lesson plans and grammar exercises for the
schools to ensure that we are in line with all of the "No Child Left Behind"
guidelines. In addition, we hope to be completing a "Sketch" for Lincolm on
Hidatsa within the next year and a half. With regards to texts, I have
completed interlinear breakdowns for all of the Lowie and Earth Lodge texts in
addition to several others, giving us a total of 13 completed texts (which is
over 1150 lines). There is still some inconsistency within the texts as my
analysis has changed over the years, so I wouldn't feel so comfortable giving
these out. In addition, some of the Hidatsa feel that some of these stories
shouldn't be told to outsiders, so we still have to work through that culturally
sensitive point.
> Other than that, things are going well on Ft. Berthold. The new
immersion programs are working well for the younger children and the high school
programs are becoming more uniform in their content.
> With regards to Hocank, I assume that Helmbrecht is still actively
working on the language and I know that there are very active language
revitalization programs going on on all of the reservations.
>
>
> So that's what's going an as far as I know.
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
> John (Boyle not Koontz)
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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