Dakota Dialects

[Marino]

Hello Doug,

Thanks, this is helpful.  Mary

At 04:43 PM 1/27/2005, you wrote:
>John and Mary,
>
>Allow me to clarify several points that have been under discussion.
>
>(1)  The Yanktonai, like the Yanktons, identify themselves in English as
>"Dakotas."  There is no historical evidence that the Yanktonai ever
>identified themselves as nakhota, and I have never heard a contemporary
>speaker (and here I mean on all the five reservations where the
>subdialects are spoken) self-identify using an n.  Cook in 1880-82
>similarly recorded the term with an initial d.  The history of the
>fallacy that Yanktonais referred to themselves with an n is given in
>DeMallie's and my paper, pp. 242-48.  James Howard is the 20th century
>promoter of the use of the n form, and his assertions have been accepted
>by many, particularly younger people who like the "neat" classification
>that it provides.
>
>(2)  There actually has been a fair amount of work accomplished on
>Yanktonai, although unpublished.  Based on work with speakers from
>Standing Rock and Devil's Lake, but including the other communities,
>I've compiled a reasonably extensive dictionary database, and Ray has
>recorded and transcribed a modest collection of texts.  (See HNAI
>13(1):98.)
>
>(3)  For the Ochethi Shakowin, see DeMallie (HNAI 13(2):735-48).
>
>Doug
>
>__________________________________________________
>
>Douglas R. Parks
>Professor of Anthropology