Heritage: Book on Oneida

[Scott McGinnis]

Heritage Languages Listserve
----------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:05:25 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Native American Langs: Oneida, C. Abbott

Oneida
CLIFFORD ABBOTT, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Oneida is an endangered language of the Iroquoian family of
northeastern North America. Among its more notable structural features
are: its relatively small phonemic inventory lacking in labials; its
use of whispered syllables; the complexity of the verbal morphology;
the dominance of verbal structures over nominal ones; and the
productive use of noun incorporation.

The current work is based on two and a half decades of field work in
the Wisconsin community of Oneidas where there are now fewer than a
couple dozen native speakers remaining. Other communities exist in
Ontario and New York state where the language is similarly endangered.
Despite the endangered status there is an oral literature, primarily
in the rich ceremonial tradition. The community actively invests in
language revitalization efforts and there is limited literacy in an
orthography not more than a few decades old.

Clifford Abbott is an associate professor in Information Sciences and
in American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay.
He has worked with the Wisconsin Oneida community since 1974
developing language revitalization materials. He has published
articles on Oneida texts and structure as well as a dictionary in
1996.

Outline of Oneida Grammar:
Setting
        related languages
        the speech community
Phonology
        phonemics
        suprasegmentals
        whispering
Morphology
        word classes - formaland functional
        verb morphology
                prefix system
                pronominal system
                stem structure and stem classes
                transitivity
                tense\aspect suffixes
                noun incorporation
        noun morphology
                possessive prefixes
                suffixes
                        locatives
                        plurals
                        others
        particles
                independent pronouns
                interrogatives
                adverbials
                syntactic particles
                discourse particles
Syntax
        basic structures
        complex structures
Text analysis
Charts
        prefix system
        pronoun system
        verb structure
        tense\aspect suffixes
Bibliography

ISBN 3 89586 555 9.
Languages of the World/Materials 301.
Ca. 60 pp. EUR 25.46 / USD 31 / DM 49.30 / £ 18.



Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no.  / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.