The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a large

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. They are closely related to the

Catawban languages The Catawban, or Eastern Siouan, languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a branch of the larger Siouan a.k.a. Siouan–Catawban family. Family division The Catawban family consists of two languages: ...

, sometimes called Eastern Siouan, and together with them constitute the Siouan (Siouan–Catawban) language family. Linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of the Siouan people, with migrations over a thousand years ago from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Some continued down the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

to the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and up to the

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Others went down the Mississippi, settling in what is now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Others traveled across Ohio to what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, home of the

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota, ...

Family division

The Siouan family proper consists of some 18 languages and various dialects: *

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...

† ** Nuptare ** Nuetare * Missouri River Siouan (a.k.a. Crow–Hidatsa) **

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

(a.k.a. Absaroka, Apsaroka, Apsaalooke, Upsaroka) – 3,500 speakers **

Hidatsa The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent ...

(a.k.a. Gros Ventre, Minitari, Minnetaree) – 200 speakers * Mississippi Valley Siouan (a.k.a. Central Siouan) **

Mitchigamea Mitchigamea or Michigamea or Michigamie were a tribe in the Illinois Confederation. Not much is known about them and their origin is uncertain. Originally they were said to be from Lake Michigan, perhaps the Chicago area. Mitchie Precinct, Monroe C ...

? † ** Dakotan (a.k.a. Sioux–Assiniboine–Stoney) ***

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

– 25,000 speakers ****

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

– 2,100 speakers ****

(sometimes classified as Western and Eastern Dakota) – 290 speakers ***

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

– 150 speakers *** Stoney – 3,200 speakers ** Chiwere-Winnebago ***

Chiwere Chiwere (also called Iowa-Otoe-Missouria or Báxoje-Jíwere-Ñút'achi) is a Siouan language originally spoken by the Missouria, Otoe, and Iowa peoples, who originated in the Great Lakes region but later moved throughout the Midwest and plains. ...

† *** Winnebago – 250 speakers **

Dhegihan The Dhegihan languages are a group of Siouan languages that include Kansa– Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw. Their historical region included parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the Great Plains, and southeastern North America. T ...

*** Omaha–Ponca – 85 speakers *** Kansa-Osage **** Kansa † **** Osage †, on ongoing revival ***

Quapaw The Quapaw ( ; or Arkansas and Ugahxpa) people are a tribe of Native Americans that coalesced in what is known as the Midwest and Ohio Valley of the present-day United States. The Dhegiha Siouan-speaking tribe historically migrated from the Oh ...

– 1 speaker * Ohio Valley Siouan ** Virginia Siouan ***

Tutelo The Tutelo (also Totero, Totteroy, Tutera; Yesan in Tutelo) were Native American people living above the Fall Line in present-day Virginia and West Virginia. They spoke a Siouan dialect of the Tutelo language thought to be similar to that of thei ...

† ***

Moneton The Moneton were a historical Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late seventeenth century they lived in the Kanawha Valley, near the Kanawha and New Rivers. Name and language What the Monetons called themselves is unknown. In ...

† ** Mississippi Siouan ***

Biloxi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

† *** Ofo † ''(†)'' –

Extinct language An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, l ...

Another view of both the Dakotan and Mississippi Valley branches is to represent them as

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

s. All the Virginia Siouan dialects listed here are thought to have been closely related to one another; the term

Tutelo language Tutelo, also known as Tutelo– Saponi, is a member of the Virginian branch of Siouan languages that were originally spoken in the territory now known as Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. Some speakers of Tutelo migrated north to ...

is also used in reference to their common tongue.

Writing systems

There are two systems used to transcribe within this family: *

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

used by a majority of these languages. *

Osage script The Osage script is a new script promulgated in 2006 and revised 2012–2014 for the Osage language. Because Latin orthographies were subject to interference from English conventions among Osage students who were more familiar with English than ...

, developed in 2005 by Herman Mongrain Lookout. There are also considerations for the script to be extensively usable for other languages in the Dhegiha group to the extent of this family.

Bibliography

* Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L. (2001). "The Siouan languages", in R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Plains'' (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94–114). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. . *Rood, David S.; & Taylor, Allan R. (1996). "Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan language", in ''Handbook of North American Indians: Languages'' (Vol. 17, pp. 440–482). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. * Ullrich, Jan. (2008). ''New Lakota Dictionary: Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Santee–Sisseton and Yankton–Yanktonai (Lakota Language Consortium)''. .

References

External links

The Siouan Languages Bibliography

Comparative Siouan languages Swadesh vocabulary lists
(from Wiktionary) {{Siouan languages * Indigenous languages of the North American Plains Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast Sioux culture Indigenous languages of North America

Family division

Writing systems

See also

Bibliography

References

External links