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The 'Arapaho language' (also 'Arapahoe') language is a Plains Algonquian language (an areal rather than genetic grouping) spoken almost entirely by elders in Wyoming. The language, which is in great danger of becoming extinct, has diverged very significantly phonologically from its posited proto-language, Proto-Algonquian (Proto-Algonquian ''
★ maθkwa'', "bear," became Arapaho ''wox'', and Proto-Algonquian ''
★ weθari'', "her husband," became Arapaho ''ííx'').

Contents

Sounds

Vowels

Consonants

Prosody

Grammar

Gros Ventre

External links

References

Sounds

As mentioned above, the Plains Algonquian languages are phonologically very distinct from other people in the great basin speak Algonquian languages and from Proto-Algonquian.

Vowels

Arapaho has a series of four short vowels and four long vowels . It also contains three diphthongs, /ei/, , and /ie/.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Arapaho is given in the table below. /j/ is normally transcribed as , as , as <'>, and is sometimes written <3>.

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	b		t		k
Affricate
Fricative		θ	s		x	h
Nasal			n
Semivowel	w			j

Prosody

Arapaho is a tonal language. Vowels can have a mid tone (unmarked), high tone (marked with an acute accent), or falling tone (marked with a circumflex).

Grammar

Gros Ventre

Gros Ventre (also known as Atsina), a divergent dialect of Arapaho, has three additional phonemes, , , and , and lacks the velar fricative /x/.

External links

★ Ethnologue Report for Arapaho

★ The Arapaho Language

★ Arapaho Language Archives, with many dialogues and narratives in Arapaho with glosses

★ A Guide to Learning the Northern Arapaho Alphabet

★ Heebe Boo'oobe'! - How to say "hello" in Arapaho

References

★ Goddard, Ives. 1974. "An Outline of the Historical Phonology of Arapaho and Atsina." ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 40:102-16.

★ Mithun, Marianne. 1999. ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.