Nawathinehena language

Nawathinehena
Nawathi'nehena, nawaθiʔnehena
Native toUnited States
RegionOklahoma
EthnicityNawathi'neha/Southern Arapaho
Eraattested 1899[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3nwa
nwa
Glottolognawa1259

Nawathinehena is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken among the Arapaho. It had a phonological development quite different from either Gros Ventre or Arapaho proper. It has been identified as the former language of the Southern Arapaho, who switched to speaking Arapaho proper in the 19th century. However, the language is not well attested, being documented only in a vocabulary collected in 1899 by Alfred L. Kroeber from the Oklahoma Arapaho.

Phonology

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While it shares many important phonological innovations with Arapaho, it presents the merger of *r, *θ and *s with *t as t instead of n as in Arapaho, a sound change reminiscent of Blackfoot and Cheyenne.[2][3] PA *w changes to m instead of merging with *r, *s and *n as n.[citation needed]

Vocabulary

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Some numbers of the Nawathinehena language:

Numbers
Nawathinehena English
tcäⁿcinaha’ one
nīsähä’ two
nahaha three
niabaha’ four
niotanähä’ five
neixθioti six
nīciotaⁿ seven
nexiotähähäⁿ eight
cioxtähähäⁿ nine
maxtoxtanähäⁿ ten

Notes

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  1. ^ Asher, R.E.; Moseley, Christopher (eds.). Atlas of the World’s Languages (2nd ed.). ISBN 9781315829845.
  2. ^ Goddard 1974.
  3. ^ Jacques 2013.

Works cited

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General references

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  • Mithun, Marianne (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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