1.
Nebraska
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Nebraska /nᵻˈbræskə/ is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Its area is just over 77,220 sq mi with almost 1.9 million people and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. The state is crossed by many trails and was explored by the Lewis. Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867 and it is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan. Nebraska is composed of two major regions, the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of rolling hills. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, characterized by treeless prairie, the state has a large agriculture sector and is a major producer of beef, pork, corn, and soybeans. Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska, the half of the state has a humid continental climate, and the western half. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration. The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, when European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, by 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a force of Pawnees and Otoes. The massacre of the Villasur expedition effectively put an end to Spanish exploration of Nebraska for the remainder of the 18th century, in 1762, during the Seven Years War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Frances withdrawal from the area left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi, by 1773, later that year, Mackays party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV, near present-day Homer. In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U. S. Army post west of the Missouri River, the army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement did not begin in any numbers until after 1848, on May 30,1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, the territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha
2.
Minnesota
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Minnesota is a state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11,1858, the state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan Land of 10,000 Lakes. Its official motto is LÉtoile du Nord, Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U. S. Minnesota is known for its progressive political orientation and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, in recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has broadened its historic demographic and cultural composition. Minnesotas standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneiska, Minneota, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U. S. region known as the Upper Midwest and it shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, with 86,943 square miles, or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has some of the Earths oldest rocks, gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean, the roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1, in more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago and these glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift, much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago and its bed created the fertile Red River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling. Minnesota is geologically quiet today, it experiences earthquakes infrequently, the states high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, which is only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesotas northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed, precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean
3.
North Dakota
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North Dakota is the 39th state of the United States, having been admitted to the union on November 2,1889. The state capital is Bismarck, and the largest city is Fargo, North Dakota is the 19th most extensive but the 4th least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The development has driven strong job and population growth, and low unemployment, North Dakota is located in the U. S. region known as the Great Plains. The state shares the Red River of the North with Minnesota on the east, South Dakota is to the south, Montana is to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are to the north. North Dakota is situated near the middle of North America with a marker in Rugby. With an area of 70,762 square miles, North Dakota is the 19th largest state, the western half of the state consists of the hilly Great Plains as well as the northern part of the Badlands, which are to the west of the Missouri River. The states high point, White Butte at 3,506 feet, the region is abundant in fossil fuels including natural gas, crude oil and lignite coal. The Missouri River forms Lake Sakakawea, the third largest man-made lake in the United States, the central region of the state is divided into the Drift Prairie and the Missouri Plateau. The eastern part of the consists of the flat Red River Valley. Its fertile soil, drained by the meandering Red River flowing northward into Lake Winnipeg, Devils Lake, the largest natural lake in the state, is also found in the east. Eastern North Dakota is overall flat, however, there are significant hills, most of the state is covered in grassland, crops cover most of eastern North Dakota but become increasingly sparse in the center and farther west. This diverse terrain supports nearly 2,000 species of plants, the state of North Dakota is home to the geographical center of North America located near Rugby, North Dakota North Dakota has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. The temperature differences are rather extreme because of its far inland position and being in the center of the Northern Hemisphere, with equal distances to the North Pole. As such, summers are almost subtropical in nature, but winters are cold enough to plant hardiness is very low. Native American peoples lived in what is now North Dakota for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans and their tribes included the Mandan people, the Dakota people and the Yanktonai, the latter two from the Lakota peoples. The first European to reach the area was the French-Canadian trader Pierre Gaultier, sieur de La Vérendrye, in 1762 the region became part of Spanish Louisiana until 1802. Dakota Territory was settled sparsely by European Americans until the late 19th century, with the advantage of grants of land, they vigorously marketed their properties, extolling the region as ideal for agriculture. An omnibus bill for statehood for North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and his successor, Benjamin Harrison, signed the proclamations formally admitting North Dakota and South Dakota to the Union on November 2,1889
4.
South Dakota
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South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, South Dakota is the 17th most expansive, but the 5th least populous and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Once the southern portion of the Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2,1889, Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 171,000, is South Dakotas largest city. South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, the state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as East River and West River. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the states population, West of the Missouri, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are located in West River, the Black Hills, a group of low pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, are located in the southwest part of the state. Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination, is located there, South Dakota experiences a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west. The ecology of the state features species typical of a North American grassland biome, humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a rush in the Black Hills. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, historically dominated by an agricultural economy and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently sought to diversify its economy in areas to attract and retain residents. South Dakotas history and rural character still strongly influence the culture of the state, South Dakota is situated in the north-central United States, and is considered a part of the Midwest by the U. S. Census Bureau, it is also part of the Great Plains region. The culture, economy, and geography of western South Dakota have more in common with the West than the Midwest, South Dakota has a total area of 77,116 square miles, making the state the 17th largest in the Union. Black Elk Peak, formerly named Harney Peak, with an elevation of 7,242 ft, is the states highest point, while the shoreline of Big Stone Lake is the lowest, with an elevation of 966 ft. South Dakota is bordered to the north by North Dakota, to the south by Nebraska, to the east by Iowa and Minnesota, the geographical center of the U. S. is 17 miles west of Castle Rock in Butte County. The North American continental pole of inaccessibility is located between Allen and Kyle,1,024 mi from the nearest coastline, the Missouri River is the largest and longest river in the state. Other major South Dakota rivers include the Cheyenne, James, Big Sioux, Eastern South Dakota has many natural lakes, mostly created by periods of glaciation. Additionally, dams on the Missouri River create four large reservoirs, Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case, South Dakota can generally be divided into three regions, eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. The Missouri River serves as a boundary in terms of geographic, social, at times the Black Hills are combined with the rest of western South Dakota, and people often refer to the resulting two regions divided by the Missouri River as West River and East River
5.
Montana
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Montana /mɒnˈtænə/ is a state in the Western region of the United States. The states name is derived from the Spanish word montaña, Montana has several nicknames, although none official, including Big Sky Country and The Treasure State, and slogans that include Land of the Shining Mountains and more recently The Last Best Place. Montana has a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It also borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, Montana is ranked 4th in size, but 44th in population and 48th in population density of the 50 United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges, smaller island ranges are found throughout the state. In total,77 named ranges are part of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern half of Montana is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands. The economy is based on agriculture, including ranching and cereal grain farming. Other significant economic activities include oil, gas, coal and hard rock mining, lumber, the health care, service, and government sectors also are significant to the states economy. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the name Montana comes from the Spanish word Montaña and the Latin word Montana, meaning mountain, or more broadly, mountainous country. Montaña del Norte was the name given by early Spanish explorers to the mountainous region of the west. The name was changed by Representatives Henry Wilson and Benjamin F. Harding, when Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in 1864 for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Montana Territory. This time Rep. Samuel Cox, also of Ohio, objected to the name, Cox complained that the name was a misnomer given most of the territory was not mountainous and that a Native American name would be more appropriate than a Spanish one. Other names such as Shoshone were suggested, but it was decided that the Committee on Territories could name it whatever they wanted, with an area of 147,040 square miles, Montana is slightly larger than Japan. It is the fourth largest state in the United States after Alaska, Texas, and California, the largest landlocked U. S. state, and the worlds 56th largest national state/province subdivision. To the north, Montana shares a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, the states topography is roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which splits much of the state into distinct eastern and western regions. Most of Montanas 100 or more named mountain ranges are in the western half. The Absaroka and Beartooth ranges in the states south-central part are part of the Central Rocky Mountains
6.
Manitoba
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Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three provinces and Canadas fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres with a varied landscape. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years, in the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Ruperts Land and owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada. The rebellions resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province, Manitobas capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canadas eighth-largest census metropolitan area. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, four of the provinces five universities and all four of its professional sports teams are in Winnipeg. The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, the name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit, a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for Lake of the Prairie, the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and it adjoins Hudson Bay to the northeast, and is the only prairie province to have a saltwater coastline. The Port of Churchill is Canadas only Arctic deep-water port and the shortest shipping route between North America and Asia, Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Hudson Bay is the worlds second-largest bay, Manitoba is at the heart of the giant Hudson Bay watershed, once known as Ruperts Land. It was a area of the Hudsons Bay Company, with many rivers. The province has a saltwater coastline bordering Hudson Bay and more than 110,000 lakes, Manitobas major lakes are Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Some traditional Native lands and boreal forest on Lake Winnipegs east side are a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg. This basins rivers reach far west to the mountains, far south into the United States, major watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell and Churchill rivers
7.
Saskatchewan
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Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in west-central Canada, the only province without natural borders. It has an area of 651,900 square kilometres, nearly 10 percent of which is water, composed mostly of rivers, reservoirs. As of December 2013, Saskatchewans population was estimated at 1,114,170, residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population, roughly half live in the provinces largest city, Saskatoon, or the provincial capital, other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, and the border city Lloydminster. Saskatchewan is a province with large distances to moderating bodies of waters. As a result, its climate is continental, rendering severe winters throughout the province. Southern areas have very warm or hot summers, Midale and Yellow Grass near the U. S. border are tied for the highest ever recorded temperatures in Canada with 45 °C observed at both locations on July 5,1937. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C are possible even in the south during extreme cold snaps, Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, and first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, in the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy, North Americas first social-democratic government was elected in 1944. The provinces economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy, Saskatchewans current premier is Brad Wall and its lieutenant-governor is Vaughn Solomon Schofield. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan. The First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the market for the tribes, they have acquired about 3,079 square kilometres. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas and its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language, as Saskatchewans borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on globes, additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program. S. States of Montana and North Dakota, Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces, the overwhelming majority of Saskatchewans population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel. Saskatchewan contains two natural regions, the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south
8.
Language family
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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. Linguists therefore describe the languages within a language family as being genetically related. Estimates of the number of living languages vary from 5,000 to 8,000, depending on the precision of ones definition of language, the 2013 edition of Ethnologue catalogs just over 7,000 living human languages. A living language is one that is used as the primary form of communication of a group of people. There are also dead and extinct languages, as well as some that are still insufficiently studied to be classified. Membership of languages in a family is established by comparative linguistics. Sister languages are said to have a genetic or genealogical relationship, speakers of a language family belong to a common speech community. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, individuals belonging to other speech communities may also adopt languages from a different language family through the language shift process. Genealogically related languages present shared retentions, that is, features of the proto-language that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing, for example, Germanic languages are Germanic in that they share vocabulary and grammatical features that are not believed to have been present in the Proto-Indo-European language. These features are believed to be innovations that took place in Proto-Germanic, language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. A family is a unit, all its members derive from a common ancestor. Some taxonomists restrict the term family to a level. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, a top-level family is often called a phylum or stock. The closer the branches are to other, the closer the languages will be related. For example, the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance, there is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry that was verified statistically. Languages interpreted in terms of the phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically as opposed to horizontally. A speech variety may also be considered either a language or a dialect depending on social or political considerations, thus, different sources give sometimes wildly different accounts of the number of languages within a family. Classifications of the Japonic family, for example, range from one language to nearly twenty, most of the worlds languages are known to be related to others
9.
Siouan languages
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Authors who call the entire family Siouan distinguish the two branches as Western Siouan and Eastern Siouan or as Siouan-proper and Catawban. Others restrict the name Siouan to the branch and use the name Siouan–Catawban for the entire family. Generally, however, the name Siouan is used without distinction, Siouan languages can be grouped into the Western Siouan languages and Catawban languages. The Western Siouan languages can be divided into Missouri River languages, Mandan, Mississippi River languages, the Catawban languages consist only of Catawban and Woccon. There is an amount of comparative work in Siouan–Catawban languages. Wolff is among the first and more works on the subject. Wolff reconstructed the system of proto-Siouan, and this was modified by Matthews, previous analysis posited only a single stop series. Many of the consonant clusters proposed by Wolf can be accounted for due to syncopation of short vowels before stressed syllables, for example, Matthews gives *wróke as the proto-form for male. With added data from a set of Siouan languages since the middle of the twentieth century. Unlike Wolff and Matthews proposals, there are no posited nasal consonants in Proto-Siouan, nasal consonants only arise in daughter languages when followed by a nasal vowel. In addition, there is a set of sounds that represent obstruentized versions of their corresponding sonorants and these sounds have different reflexes in daughter languages, with *w appearing as or in most daughter languages, while *W has a reflex of, or. The actual phonetic value of these obstruents is an issue of some debate, previous work on Proto-Siouan only posited single vowel length. However, phonemic vowel length exists in several Siouan languages such as Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk, Rankin et al. analyze numerous instances of long vowels as present due to common inheritance rather than common innovation. The five oral vowels and three nasal vowels posited by earlier scholars is expanded to include a distinction between short and long vowels, the proposed Proto-Siouan vowel system appears below, The Yuchi isolate may be the closest relative of Sioux–Catawban. In the 19th century, Robert Latham suggested that the Siouan languages are related to the Caddoan and Iroquoian languages, in 1931, Louis Allen presented the first list of systematic correspondences between a set of 25 lexical items in Siouan and Iroquoian. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace Chafe further explored the link between Siouan and Caddoan languages, in the 1990s, Marianne Mithun compared the morphology and syntax of all the three families. At present, this Macro-Siouan hypothesis is not considered proved, parks, Douglas R. & Rankin, Robert L. In R. J. DeMallie, Handbook of North American Indians, Plains, rudin, Catherine, Gordon, Bryan James, eds
10.
Western Siouan languages
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The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a large language family native to North America. They are closely related to the Catawban languages, sometimes called Eastern Siouan, linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of the Siouan people, with migrations over a thousand years ago from North Carolina and Virginia to Ohio. Some continued down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and up to the Missouri, others went down the Mississippi, settling in what is now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Others traveled across Ohio to what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, the Siouan family proper consists of some 18 languages and various dialects, I. Ofo – Extinct language Another view of both the Dakotan and Mississippi Valley branches is to represent them as dialect continuums. All the Virginia Siouan dialects listed here are thought to have closely related to one another. Siouan–Catawban languages Parks, Douglas R. & Rankin, Robert L, the Siouan languages, in R. J. DeMallie, Handbook of North American Indians, Plains. Rood, David S. & Taylor, Allan R. Sketch of Lakhota, new Lakota Dictionary, Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Santee–Sisseton and Yankton–Yanktonai. The Siouan Languages Bibliography Siouan languages FAQ Siouan languages mailing list archive Comparative Siouan languages Swadesh vocabulary lists
11.
Siouan language
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Authors who call the entire family Siouan distinguish the two branches as Western Siouan and Eastern Siouan or as Siouan-proper and Catawban. Others restrict the name Siouan to the branch and use the name Siouan–Catawban for the entire family. Generally, however, the name Siouan is used without distinction, Siouan languages can be grouped into the Western Siouan languages and Catawban languages. The Western Siouan languages can be divided into Missouri River languages, Mandan, Mississippi River languages, the Catawban languages consist only of Catawban and Woccon. There is an amount of comparative work in Siouan–Catawban languages. Wolff is among the first and more works on the subject. Wolff reconstructed the system of proto-Siouan, and this was modified by Matthews, previous analysis posited only a single stop series. Many of the consonant clusters proposed by Wolf can be accounted for due to syncopation of short vowels before stressed syllables, for example, Matthews gives *wróke as the proto-form for male. With added data from a set of Siouan languages since the middle of the twentieth century. Unlike Wolff and Matthews proposals, there are no posited nasal consonants in Proto-Siouan, nasal consonants only arise in daughter languages when followed by a nasal vowel. In addition, there is a set of sounds that represent obstruentized versions of their corresponding sonorants and these sounds have different reflexes in daughter languages, with *w appearing as or in most daughter languages, while *W has a reflex of, or. The actual phonetic value of these obstruents is an issue of some debate, previous work on Proto-Siouan only posited single vowel length. However, phonemic vowel length exists in several Siouan languages such as Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk, Rankin et al. analyze numerous instances of long vowels as present due to common inheritance rather than common innovation. The five oral vowels and three nasal vowels posited by earlier scholars is expanded to include a distinction between short and long vowels, the proposed Proto-Siouan vowel system appears below, The Yuchi isolate may be the closest relative of Sioux–Catawban. In the 19th century, Robert Latham suggested that the Siouan languages are related to the Caddoan and Iroquoian languages, in 1931, Louis Allen presented the first list of systematic correspondences between a set of 25 lexical items in Siouan and Iroquoian. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace Chafe further explored the link between Siouan and Caddoan languages, in the 1990s, Marianne Mithun compared the morphology and syntax of all the three families. At present, this Macro-Siouan hypothesis is not considered proved, parks, Douglas R. & Rankin, Robert L. In R. J. DeMallie, Handbook of North American Indians, Plains, rudin, Catherine, Gordon, Bryan James, eds
12.
Sioux
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The Sioux /ˈsuː/ are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nations many language dialects. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on divisions, the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota. The Santee Dakota reside in the extreme east of the Dakotas, Minnesota, the Yankton and Yanktonai Dakota, collectively also referred to by the endonym Wičhíyena, reside in the Minnesota River area. They are considered to be the middle Sioux, and have in the past been erroneously classified as Nakota, the actual Nakota are the Assiniboine and Stoney of Western Canada and Montana. The Lakota, also called Teton, are the westernmost Sioux, known for their hunting, the name Sioux was adopted in English by the 1760s from French. It is abbreviated from Nadouessioux, first attested by Jean Nicolet in 1640, the name is sometimes said to be derived from an Ojibwe exonym for the Sioux meaning little snakes. The spelling in -x is due to the French plural marker, the Proto-Algonquian form *na·towe·wa, meaning Northern Iroquoian, has reflexes in several daughter languages that refer to a small rattlesnake. An alternative explanation is derivation from an exonym na·towe·ssiw, from a verb meaning to speak a foreign language. The current Ojibwe term for the Sioux and related groups is Bwaanag, presumably, this refers to the style of cooking the Sioux used in the past. The alternative English spelling of Ogallala is considered improper, the historical Sioux referred to the Great Sioux Nation as the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, meaning Seven Council Fires. Each fire was a symbol of an oyate, the seven nations that comprise the Sioux are, Bdewákaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute, Sisíthuŋwaŋ, the Iháŋkthuŋwaŋ, Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna, and the Thítȟuŋwaŋ. The Seven Council Fires would assemble each summer to hold council, renew kinships, decide tribal matters, the seven divisions would select four leaders known as Wičháša Yatápika from among the leaders of each division. The last meeting of the Seven Council Fires was in 1850, today the Teton, Santee and the Minnesota Dakota, and Yankton/Yanktonai are usually known, respectively, as the Lakota, Eastern Dakota, or Western Dakota. In any of the three dialects, Lakota or Dakota translate to mean friend or ally, referring to the alliance that once bound the Great Sioux Nation. The Dakota are first recorded to have resided at the source of the Mississippi River during the seventeenth century, by 1700 some had migrated to present-day South Dakota. Late in the 17th century, the Dakota entered into an alliance with French merchants, the French were trying to gain advantage in the struggle for the North American fur trade against the English, who had recently established the Hudsons Bay Company. The first recorded encounter between the Sioux and the French occurred when Radisson and Groseilliers reached what is now Wisconsin during the winter of 1659–60
13.
Indigenous languages of the Americas
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Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses that constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of language families, as well as many language isolates. Many proposals to group these into higher-level families have been made and this scheme is rejected by nearly all specialists. According to UNESCO, most of the indigenous American languages in North America are critically endangered, the most widely spoken indigenous language is Southern Quechua, with about 6 to 7 million speakers, primarily in South America. Thousands of languages were spoken by various peoples in North and South America prior to their first contact with Europeans and these encounters occurred between the beginning of the 11th century and the end of the 15th century. Several indigenous cultures of the Americas had also developed their own writing systems, after pre-Columbian times, several indigenous creole languages developed in the Americas, based on European, indigenous and African languages. The European colonizers and their states had widely varying attitudes towards Native American languages. In Brazil, friars learned and promoted the Tupi language, as a result, indigenous American languages suffered from cultural suppression and loss of speakers. Many indigenous languages have become endangered, but others are vigorous. Several indigenous languages have been official status in the countries where they occur. In other cases official status is limited to regions where the languages are most spoken. Although sometimes enshrined in constitutions as official, the languages may be used infrequently in de facto official use, examples are Quechua in Peru and Aymara in Bolivia, where in practice, Spanish is dominant in all formal contexts. In North America and the Arctic region, Greenland in 2009 adopted Kalaallisut as its official language. In the United States, the Navajo language is the most spoken Native American language, the US Marine Corps recruited Navajo men, who were established as code talkers during World War II, to transmit secret US military messages. Neither the Germans nor Japanese ever deciphered the Navajo code, which was a using the Navajo language. Today, governments, universities, and indigenous peoples are continuing to work for the preservation and revitalization of indigenous American languages, in American Indian Languages, The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Lyle Campbell lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages. These proliferated in the New World, notes, Extinct languages or families are indicated by, †. The number of members is indicated in parentheses
14.
Cree language
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Despite numerous speakers within this wide-ranging area, the only region where Cree has any official status is in the Northwest Territories, alongside eight other aboriginal languages. Endonyms are Nēhiyawēwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ, Nīhithawīwin, Nehirâmowin, Nehlueun, Ilnu-Aimûn, Innu-Aimûn, Iyiniu-Ayamiwin, Iyiyiu-Ayamiwin, Ililîmowin, Inilîmowin, the Cree dialect continuum can be divided by many criteria. Dialects spoken in northern Ontario and the southern James Bay, Lanaudière, in several dialects, including northern Plains Cree and Woods Cree, the long vowels /eː/ and /iː/ have merged into a single vowel, /iː/. In the Quebec communities of Chisasibi, Whapmagoostui, and Kawawachikamach, see the table above for examples in the *kīla column. Very often the Cree dialect continuum is divided into two languages, Cree and Montagnais, Cree includes all dialects which have not undergone the *k > /tʃ/ sound change while Montagnais encompasses the territory where this sound change has occurred. These labels are useful from a linguistic perspective but are confusing as East Cree then qualifies as Montagnais. For practical purposes, Cree usually covers the dialects which use syllabics as their orthography, the term Naskapi typically refers to Kawawachikamach and Natuashish. The Cree dialects can be classified into nine groups. From west to east, This table is made to all possible consonant phonemes that may be included in a Cree language. Like many Native American languages, Cree features a complex polysynthetic morphology, a common grammatical feature in Cree dialects, in terms of sentence structure, is non-regulated word order. Word order is not governed by a set of rules or structure, instead. Subject, Verb, and Object in a sentence can vary in order, for example, SVO, VOS, OVS, obviation is also a key aspect of the Cree language. In a sense, the obviative can be defined as any third-person ranked lower on a hierarchy of discourse salience than some other discourse-participant. “Obviative animate nouns, are marked by ending –a, and are used to refer to persons who are more peripheral in the discourse than the proximate third person”. For example, Sam wâpam-ew Susan-a Sam see-3SG Susan-3OBV Sam sees Susan The suffix -a marks Susan as the obviative, or fourth person, another distinct feature of the Cree language is what could be understood as gender, similar to the French language’s genders of male and female nouns. Cree defines nouns as being animate or inanimate, there is no distinct rule governing the classification of animacy or inanimacy, rather, it is learned through immersive language acquisition. A Cree word can be long, and express something that takes a series of words in English. For example, the Plains Cree word for school is kiskinohamātowikamikw, both writing systems represent the language phonetically
15.
Inuit languages
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The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The Inuit live primarily in three countries, Greenland, Canada, and the United States, Greenland census estimates place the number of speakers of varieties of Inuit there at roughly 50,000, while Canadian estimates are at roughly 35,000. These two countries count the bulk of speakers of Inuit language variants, although about 7,500 Alaskans speak varieties of Inuit out of a population of over 13,000 Inuit, the Inuit languages have a few hundred speakers in Russia. In addition, an estimated 7,000 Greenlandic Inuit live in European Denmark, thus, the global population of speakers of varieties of Inuit is on the order of nearly 100,000 people. However, there are no criteria for breaking the Inuit language into specific member languages since it forms a dialect continuum. Each band of Inuit understands its neighbours, and most likely its neighbours neighbours, in Greenland the official form of Inuit language, and the official language of the state, is called Kalaallisut. In other languages, it is often called Greenlandic or some cognate term, in those dialects, the name is sometimes rendered as Inuktitun to reflect dialectal differences in pronunciation. The Inuit language of Quebec is called Inuttitut by its speakers, and often by other people, in Labrador, the language is called Inuttut or, often in official documents, by the more descriptive name Labradorimiutut. Furthermore, Canadians – both Inuit and non-Inuit – sometimes use the word Inuktitut to refer to all Inuit language variants, including those of Alaska, see the article on Eskimo for more information on this word. The language of the Inuit is an Eskimo–Aleut language and it is fairly closely related to the Yupik languages and more remotely to the Aleut language. These cousin languages are all spoken in Western Alaska and Eastern Chukotka, some consider it a Paleosiberian language, although that is more a geographic than a linguistic grouping. Early forms of the Inuit language were spoken by the Thule people, by 1300, the Inuit and their language had reached western Greenland, and finally east Greenland roughly at the same time the Viking colonies in southern Greenland disappeared. It is generally believed that it was during this centuries-long eastward migration that the Inuit language became distinct from the Yupik languages spoken in Western Alaska and Chukotka, until 1902, a possible enclave of the Dorset, the Sadlermiut, existed on Southampton Island. Almost nothing is known about their language, but the few eyewitness accounts tell of them speaking a strange dialect and this suggests that they also spoke an Eskimo–Aleut language, but one quite distinct from the forms spoken in Canada today. The Yupik and Inuit languages are very similar syntactically and morphologically, the Inuit languages are a fairly closely linked set of languages which can be broken up using a number of different criteria. Traditionally, Inuit describe dialect differences by means of place names to describe local idiosyncrasies in language, The dialect of Igloolik versus the dialect of Iqaluit and this makes any partition of the Inuit language somewhat problematic. This article will use labels that try to synthesise linguistic, sociolinguistic and this scheme is not the only one used or necessarily one used by Inuit themselves, but its labels do try to reflect the usages most seen in popular and technical literature. Of the roughly 13,000 Alaskan Iñupiat, as few as 3000 may still be able to speak the Iñupiat language, Alaskan Inupiat speak four distinct dialects, Qawiaraq is spoken on the southern side of the Seward Peninsula and the Norton Sound area
16.
Anishinaabe language
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Ojibwe /oʊˈdʒɪbweɪ/, also known as Chippewa or Otchipwe, is an Indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names, there is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects. The relative autonomy of the dialects of Ojibwe is associated with an absence of linguistic or political unity among Ojibwe-speaking groups. The latter two cover approximately the territory as Central Ojibwa, which he does not recognize. Ojibwe is a relatively healthy indigenous language, the Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion School teaches all classes to children in Ojibwe only. The Algonquian language family of which Ojibwe is a member is itself a member of the Algic language family, other Algic languages being Wiyot, Ojibwe is sometimes described as a Central Algonquian language, along with Fox, Cree, Menominee, Miami-Illinois, Potawatomi, and Shawnee. The most general indigenous designation for the language is Anishinaabemowin speaking the language, with varying spellings. Some speakers use the term Ojibwemowin, the general term in Oji-Cree is Anihshininiimowin, although Anishinaabemowin is widely recognized by Severn speakers. Some speakers of Saulteaux Ojibwe refer to their language as Nakawemowin, the Ottawa dialect is sometimes referred to as Daawaamwin, although the general designation is Nishnaabemwin, with the latter term also applied to Jibwemwin or Eastern Ojibwe. Other local terms are listed in Ojibwe dialects, English terms include Ojibwe, with variants including Ojibwa and Ojibway. The related term Chippewa is more commonly employed in the United States, Ojibwe and Potawatomi are frequently viewed as being more closely related to each other than to other Algonquian languages. A discussion of Algonquian family subgroups indicates that Ojibwe–Potawatomi is another possibility that awaits investigation, in a proposed consensus classification of Algonquian languages, Goddard classifies Ojibwa and Potawatomi as Ojibwayan, although no supporting evidence is adduced. The Central languages share a significant number of common features, groups of speakers of the Ottawa dialect migrated to Kansas and Oklahoma during the historical period, with a small amount of linguistic documentation of the language in Oklahoma. The presence of Ojibwe in British Columbia has been noted, current census data indicate that all varieties of Ojibwe are spoken by approximately 56,531 people. This figure reflects census data from the 2000 United States census, the Red Lake, White Earth, and Leech Lake reservations are known for their tradition of singing hymns in the Ojibwe language. As of 2011, Ojibwe is the language of Red Lake. Because the dialects of Ojibwe are at least partly mutually intelligible, Ojibwe is usually considered to be a language with a number of dialects. Conventionally regarded as a language consisting of a continuum of dialectal varieties since
