Assiniboine and Stoney.

[cstelfer at ucalgary.ca]

Hi,


> I was talking with John Newman at Edmonton in October
> and he felt that the two major Stoney dialect clusters
> might be different in this regard.  The northern group
> around Alexis were more able to interact with
> Assiniboine, while the group from around Morley were
> less able to do so.  But I too may have the
> relationship reversed -- this was a casual conversation
> driving in from the airport.
>

I guess I should always distinguish between South Stoney (Morley, Eden
Valley and Big Horn reserves) and North Stoney (Alexis and Paul bands).
The South Stoneys have apparently lost the glottalized set of stops and
collapsed them with the aspirated series, but the Northern group have not.
 Both groups have innovative stress patterns that differ somewhat from
Assiniboine and Dakota, and from each other.  Since the North Stoneys have
a more conservative phonemic inventory, I'm guessing that it would be
easier for them to communicate with other groups than for the South
Stoneys.  However the North Stoneys also have a more innovative stress
pattern, and that could potentially cause a lot of confusion.


> Ulrike Zeshaan in Melbourne
> is doing a comparative study of various Asian, Middle
> Eastern and European sign languages.
>

I guess cultural differences might play some kind of role in this.  In
India the typical symbol for eating is to cup one hand and move the other
hand from hand to mouth with the fingers and thumb all touching each other
(as if holding a piece of flatbread).  Here we tend to do something along
the lines of putting our hands into fists to show the use of utensils.

It just occured to me that almost all of us use our hands when talking,
only we don't have a set sign language like the plains people did.  I
always laugh at my dad, who will use his hands when talking on the phone,
which is especially funny when he's giving someone directions.  I'm sure
both linguists and anthropologists have already looked into this
phenomenon in some detail, however I'm not aware of any academic research
on the subject.

Corey.