Hidatsa update

John Boyle jpboyle at uchicago.edu
Fri Oct 8 23:53:17 UTC 2004


>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 Kaufman
><mailto:dvklinguist2003 at yahoo.com>dvklinguist2003 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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