Language contact

[ivan.ozbolt at ou.edu]

Hello everyone,

This is the first message I am sending to the Siouan List. My name is Ivan Ozbolt, and I am a MA student in Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

I am currently writing a paper on the Osage language, and I would like to know if there is documentation available about language contact and the Dhegiha tribes, particularly from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century historical period.

For instance, the Osage used the sign language with other tribes, and some also spoke French. But did they use any trade jargon or pidgin? Did they also speak Comanche, a Lingua Franca of the southern Plains? Were some colonial words (from French, English, Spanish) integrated in their language?

Can we find in Osage (and other Dhegiha languages) words borrowed from non-Siouan languages?

Thank you.

Ivan Ozbolt