Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 13:3 (2023) ► pp.488–517

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

‘Common nighthawk’ (Chordeiles minor) in Algonquian and Siouan languages

 | Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Published online: 21 February 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.22033.col
Abstract
Some North American indigenous languages have names for ‘common nighthawk’ (Chordeiles minor)’, ‘robin’, and ‘bird’ that are strikingly similar phonetically and have served to advocate long-distance genetic relationships among language families. While the Algonquian proto-form for ‘nighthawk’ has a rather straightforward pedigree, this is not the case for Siouan languages. Despite their phonetic resemblance, the ornithonyms for ‘nighthawk’ in half a dozen Siouan languages are unrelated; some are mimetic innovations and others are borrowed. This article analyses how and why ornithonyms are problematic in the application of the comparative method, a reality that affects the validity of long-distance claims, and offers alternative ways to deal with this issue. While ornithonyms can be inherited and undergo all the regular sound changes (or not) like other words, they are also problematic in many respects. First, they can be onomatopoetic and imitate the cry or call of the bird in question – a feature that accounts for their cross-linguistic similarity. Second, they can undergo ad hoc mimetic reshaping or become lexically contaminated based on phonetic similarity with other ornithonyms or words with which they are associated culturally. Third and last, they can be borrowed internally or externally. However, despite these comparative pitfalls (i.e., that some phonetically similar forms in a language family are not cognates), the analysis shows that our understanding of ornithological nomenclature can be enhanced by considering elements of ornithology, mythology, ethnographic knowledge, sayings, and puns pertaining to birds.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The problems with ornithonyms and large-scale reconstruction
  • 3.Algonquian languages
    • 3.1Eastern, Central, and Plains Algonquian Languages
    • 3.2Core Central Algonquian languages
  • 4.Siouan languages
    • 4.1Mandan, Dakotan, and Hoocąk
    • 4.2Dhegihan languages
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (89)
References
Ahenakew, Edward. 1929. Cree Trickster Tales. The Journal of American Folklore 42:166.309–353. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arlotto, Anthony. 1972. Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aubin, George F. 1975. Proto-Algonquian Dictionary. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bent, Arthur C. 1940. Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds, and Their Allies. Washington: United States National Museum, Bulletin No. 176.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berlin, Brent & John P. O’Neill. 1981. The Pervasiveness of Onomatopoeia in Aguaruna and Huambisa Bird Names. Journal of Ethnobiology 1:2.238–261.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berlin, Brent. 1992. Ethnobiological Classification: Principles of Categorization of Plants and Animals in Traditional Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berman, Howard. 2006. Studies in Blackfoot Prehistory. International Journal of American Linguistics 72:2.264–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bigony, Beatrice A. 1982. Folk Literature as an Ethnohistorical Device: The Interrelationships between Winnebago Folk Tales and Wisconsin Habitat. Ethnohistory 29:3.155–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard. 1962. The Menomini Language ed. by Charles Hockett. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Byington, Cyrus. 1915. A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Callender, Charles. 1978. Illinois. Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 15) ed. by Bruce Trigger & William C. Sturtevant, 673–680. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1996. On Sound Change and Challenges to Regularity. The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change ed. by Mark Durie & Malcolm Ross, 72–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collette, Vincent & Wilma Kennedy. 2023. A Concise Dictionary of Nakoda (Assiniboine). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, David J. 1991. The Historical Phonology of Miami-Illinois Consonants. International Journal of American Linguistics 57:3.365–393. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2021. sk and sp in Illinois. Paper Read at the Fifty-Third Algonquian Conference. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuoq, Jean André. 1886. Lexique de la langue algonquine. Montréal: J. Chapleau.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, Henry & Jan van Eijk. 2014. Lillooet Bird Names. Anthropological Linguistics 56:1.78–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Day, Gordon. 1994. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 1: Abenaki-English. Ottawa: Canadian Ethnology Service. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeBlois, Albert D. & Alphonse Metallic. 1984. Micmac Lexicon. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dempsey, Hugh A. 2018. Napi: The Trickster. Calgary: Heritage House Publishing Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derksen, Rick. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denny, Peter J. 1989. Algonquian Connections to Salishan and Northeastern Archaeology. Papers of the Twentieth Algonquian Conference ed. by William Cowan, 86–107. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991. The Algonquian Migration from Plateau to Midwest: Linguistics and Archaeology. Papers of the Twenty-Second Algonquian Conference ed. by William Cowan, 103–124. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. Archaeological Signs of Eastern Algonquian. Essays in Algonquian, Catawban and Siouan Linguistics in Memory of Frank T. Siebert, Jr. ed. by Blair Rudes & David Costa, 15–36. Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorsey, James Owen. 1894. A Study of Siouan Cults. Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1889–1890. Washington: Bureau of Ethnology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garrett, Andrew. 2001. Reduplication and Infixation in Yurok: Morphology, Semantics, and Diachrony. International Journal of American Linguistics 67:3.264–312. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, Ives. 1974. An Outline of the Historical Phonology of Arapaho and Atsina. International Journal of American Linguistics 40:2.102–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1978. Central Algonquian Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 15) ed. by Bruce Trigger & William C. Sturtevant, 583–587. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1982. The Historical Phonology of Munsee. International Journal of American Linguistics 48:1.16–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. The West-to-East Cline in Algonquian Dialectology. Actes du vingt-cinquième congrès des Algonquinistes ed. by William Cowan, 187–211. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. The Historical Origins of Cheyenne Inflections. Papers of the Thirty-First Algonquian Conference ed. by John Nichols, 77–129. Winnipeg: Manitoba University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Linguistic Variation in a Small Speech Community: The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware. Anthropological Linguistics 52:1.1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, Ives & Lucy Thomason. 2014. A Meskwaki-English and English-Meskwaki Dictionary (Based on Early Twentieth-Century Writings by Native Speakers). Petoskey: Mundart Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
GoodTracks, Jimm. 2008. The Ioway-Otoe-Missouria (Báxoje-Jiwére-Ñutˀačhi) Language Project and Dictionary. Topeka, KS: Kansas Historical Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. & Merrit Ruhlen. 2007. An Amerind Etymological Dictionary. Manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haas, Mary R. 1959. Tonkawa and Algonkian. Anthropological Linguistics 1:2.1–6.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Headman, Louis V. & Sean O’Neill. 2019. Dictionary of the Ponca People. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hollow, Robert Charles. 1970. A Mandan Dictionary. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Hewson, John. 1973. Proto-Algonkian Reflexes in Micmac. Anthropological Linguistics 15:3.151–164Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles. 1981. The Phonological History of Menominee. Anthropological Linguistics 23:2.51–87Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunn, Eugene S. 1977. Tzeltal Folk Zoology: The Classification of Discontinuities in Nature. New York: Academic PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume. 2012. A Siouan-Algonquian Wanderwort: The Name of the Bear. Amerindia 361.187–193.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaufman, David. 2016. Two Siouan Languages Walk into a Sprachbund. Advances in the Study of Siouan Languages and Linguistics ed. by Catherine Rudin & Bryan J. Gordon, 39–62. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Biloxi-English Dictionary with English-Biloxi Index. Chicago: Exploration Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kinkade, Dale. M. 1995. Transmontane Lexical Borrowing in Salish. Papers for the 30th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, 1–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuipers, Aert H. 2002. Salish Etymological Dictionary. Missoula: University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics, No. 16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koontz, John E. 1990. Avian Loans: Selected Bird Names of Eastern North America. Paper Presented at the American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
La Flesche, Francis. 1925. The Osage Tribe, The Rite of Vigil. Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1917–1918).31–630.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1932. A Dictionary of the Osage language. Vol. 1091. Washington: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larson, Rory. 2016. Regular Sound Shifts in the History of Siouan. Advances in the Study of Siouan Languages and Linguistics ed. by Catherine Rudin & Bryan J. Gordon, 63–83. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1988. The Jealous Potter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lipkind, William. 1945. Winnebago Grammar. New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lowie, Robert H. 1960. A Few Assiniboine Texts. Anthropological Linguistics 2:8.1–30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied. 1906. Travels in the Interior of North America. Early Western Travels ed. by Reuben G. Thwaites, Vols. 22–24. Cleveland: A. H. Clark Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, John D. 1995. The Ojibwe Verb in Broken Oghibbeway. Amsterdam Creole Studies 121.1–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikolaev, Sergei L. 2015. Toward the Reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan, Part 2: Algonquian-Wakashan Sound Correspondences. Journal of Language Relationship 13:4.289–328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oneroad, Amos Enos & Alanson Skinner. 2003. Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parks, Douglas R. & Lula Nora Pratt. 2008. A Dictionary of Skiri Pawnee. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parker, Gary & Alicia Ibanez. 1964. English-Quechua Dictionary – Cuzco, Ayacucho, Cochambamba. Ithaca: Cornell University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pentland, David H. 1982. French Loanwords in Cree. Studies in Native American Linguistics ed. by J. E. McLaughlin & J. L. Vantine, 105–118. Kansas City: Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Picard, Marc. 1994. Principles and Methods in Historical Phonology: From Proto- Algonkian to Arapaho. Montréal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quintero, Carolyn. 2004. Osage Grammar. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rand, Silas T. 1888. Dictionary of the Language of the Micmac Indians: Who Reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia Printing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rankin, Robert L. 1982. Quapaw Vocabulary. Manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992. Language in the Americas. International Journal of American Linguistics 58:3.324–351. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. On the Sources and Scope of Siouan Aspiration. Proceedings of the 1993 Mid-America Linguistics Conference and Conference on Siouan/Caddoan languages ed. by Jules Gomes & David S. Rood, 205–216. Boulder: University of Colorado.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2001. The Kaw Nation in Prehistory: What the Kaw Language and Place Names Tell Us. Paper presented at a public lecture, Kaw Mission. Council Grove, KS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. English to Kanza Dictionary. Author & Kaw Nation Language Project. Online: [URL]
Rhodes, Richard. 2021. The Case for Core Central Algonquian. Webs of Relationships and Words from Long Ago. A Festschrift Presented to Ives Goddard on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday ed. by Lucy Thomason, David J. Costa & Amy Dahlstrom, 303–345. Petoskey: Mundart Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riggs, Stephen Return. 1992 [1890]. A Dakota-English Dictionary ed. by James Owen Dorsey. Washington: Department of the Interior, Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schaeffer, Claude E. 1950. Bird Nomenclature and Principles of Avian Taxonomy of the Blackfeet Indians. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 40:2.37–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shackelford, Alan G. 1998. The Frontier in Pre-Columbian Illinois. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 100:3.182–206.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siebert, Frank T. 1967. The Original Home of the Proto-Algonquian People. Contributions to Anthropology: Linguistics I ed. by Ives Goddard, 13–47. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada Bulletin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1975. Resurrecting Virginia Algonquian from the Dead: The Reconstituted and Historical Phonology of Powhatan. Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages ed. by James M. Crawford, 285–458. Athens: University of Georgia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Speck, Frank G. 1921. Bird-Lore of the Northern Indians. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1945. Bird Nomenclature and Song Interpretation of the Canadian Delaware: An Essay in Ethno-Ornithology. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 36:8.249–258.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swetland, Mark J. 1977. Umonhon iye of Elizabeth Stabler: A Vocabulary of the Omaha Language. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tardif, Réjean. 2001. L’honorable langue malécite. Lexique Français-Malécite et notion de grammaire. Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska: Réjean TardifGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, Allan R. 1994. Gros Ventre dictionary: English to Gros Ventre with an Index of Gros Ventre Stems, 2 vols. Boulder: Center for the Study of the Native Languages of Plains and Southwest.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torres Carolan, Jonnia & Ryan M. Kasak. 2019. A Phonetic Analysis of Obstruent Series in Hidatsa. Proceedings of the 38th Siouan and Caddoan Languages Conference ed. by Ryan M. Kasak, 123–144. Chicago: Northeastern Illinois University Linguistics Department.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trevelyan, Amelia. M. 2004. Miskwabik, Metal of Ritual: Metallurgy in Precontact Eastern North America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trumbull, James Hammond. 1903. Natick Dictionary. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, No. 25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Eijk, Jan P. 2013. Lillooet-English Dictionary. (=The University of British Columbia Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 2). Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Voegelin, Carl F. 1938–1940. Shawnee Stems and the Jacob P. Dunn Miami Dictionary. Indiana Historical Society Prehistory Research Series 11.63–108, 135–167, 289–323, 345–406, 409–478. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Voorhis, Paul H. 1988. Kickapoo Vocabulary. Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wall, C. Leon & William Morgan. 1958. Navajo-English Dictionary. Phoenix, Arizona: United States Department of the Interior, Division of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whittaker, Gordon. 2005. A Concise Dictionary of the Sauk Language. Stroud, OK: The Sac & Fox National Public Library.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Witthoft, John. 1946. Bird Lore of the Eastern Cherokee. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 36:11.372–384.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue