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New Words Needed:
A Comparative Database for
Algonquian Lexical Innovation
Hunter T. Lockwood, Monica Macaulay, Daniel W. Hieber
Historical-Comparative Linguistics for Language
Revitalization
June 29, 2019
We respectfully acknowledge that we are on the
traditional land of Patwin-speaking people. We
acknowledge the painful history of the California
gold rush in this territory, and we honor and respect
the indigenous peoples connected to this land.
2
it’s been a long day, so here’s a cup of
coffee to get you through the last talk…
Miami-Illinois Menominee
kociihsaapowi kahpēh
‘bean liquid’
Potawatomi
gapi
Ojibwe
makade-mashkikiwaaboo ‘black-medicine liquid’
3
Recent Headlines
4
New Words Needed
•Need for novel vocabulary
•especially in immersion settings
•specifically, for Algonquian languages
•Our project: historical-comparative database of
derivational morphemes that can be used in
creation of novel vocabulary
5
Roadmap
1. Introduction: Need for novel vocabulary
2. Background: Derivation in Algonquian languages
3. Our proposal: The database
4. Communities building new words
5. Use in linguistics
6. Conclusion
6
1. Need: Novel Vocabulary
•Keep language relevant for young people
•create words for new technology, etc.
•Immersion schools: teaching all subjects in the
language
7
Methods Used
•Jessie Little Doe Baird: “The Wampanoag pretty
much do what English speakers do… Communities
borrow words, and if somebody at some point
decides that something is important, they will give
it a name in that language.”
•Iceland: “The Language Planning Department, a
small government-funded office of linguists with a
rotating cast of subject experts is in charge of
integrating new and foreign concepts into the
millennia-old Icelandic language.”
8
Methods: Committee of Elders
•Waadookodaading Immersion School, Hayward, WI
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Ojibwe Vocabulary Project
“Some aspects […] of instruction are not
indigenous to Ojibwe and are difficult to teach
such as algebraic formulas (nominator, arrays,
fractions, variables), scientific principles (cell
nomenclature, volcanic terms), abstract ideas
of government (filibuster, bill of rights),
grammar (tense, conjunct, adverb) and many
other subjects.” (Aaniin Ekidong p. 5)
10
Ojibwe Vocabulary Project
•3-day meeting
•large group of elders
•most words agreed on in
groups; a few generated
by individuals
•128-page booklet
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Example: Ojibwe Vocabulary Project
12
But…
•What if the community doesn’t have any elder first-
language speakers, or if those elders aren’t inclined
to create new words?
•Our (very Algonquian-specific) solution: database
of Algonquian derivational morphemes
13
2. Background: Derivation in
Algonquian Languages
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Words in Algonquian languages
15
Examples
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Examples, cont.
17
Examples, cont.
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3. The database
•Web-based
•Works on any computer / device (including mobile)
•Synchronizes across devices
•Online collaboration / permissions
•Online / offline (works like an app)
•Choice of data storage location (offline or cloud)
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3. The database, cont.
•Open access
•Not dependent on a single programmer
•Anybody can contribute ideas, issue reports, or code
•Transparency – decisions and their discussion can be
viewed online
•Code is open access, the data is private (uses
permissions)
•Project benefits from distributed knowledge of
programming and linguistics
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3. The database, cont.
•Data Format for Digital Linguistics (DaFoDiL) (Hieber
2019)
•Uses the same format used by most web apps (JSON)
•Simple text-based format, more human-readable and
human-writable than XML
•Specifies a set of properties and how they should be
formatted for various linguistic objects (Texts,
Morphemes, Phonemes, etc.)
•Uses linguistic terminology and concepts rather than
programming terminology and concepts
•Interoperable – anybody who follows the format
guidelines can use DaFoDiL data in their own program
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Component Cognate Sets
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4. Communities building new words
•“Today’s young speakers need to accurately imitate
the past while creating the future.” (Noodin to
appear)
•Older generations of Algonquian language speakers
used their knowledge of components to coin words
to describe novel objects they came into contact
with
•Encoded their unique perspectives and experiences
23
Ojibwe examples
•giboodiyegwaazon ‘(pair of) pants’
[[gibw-diye-gwaazo]-n]
[[blocked.off-butt-sew]-nominalizer]
•mazinaabikiwebinigan ‘computer’
[[mazin-aabik-webin]-igan]
[[image-inorganic.solid-fling.by.hand]-nominalizer]
•From an older word for ‘typewriter’
(Examples from Mike Sullivan, p.c.)
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Miami-Illinois example
•Community members reclaiming languages without
speakers create words in the same ways, but infuse
them with their own unique perspectives:
•A Miami-Illinois word for ‘computer’ was never
documented [unsurprisingly]
•Modern Miami-Illinois reclaimers coined
kiinteelintaakani ‘computer’
[[kiint-eelintam]-kan]
[[fast-thinking]-nominalizer]
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Miami-Illinois: discussion
•Leonard (2007:5): “In the relatively infrequent case
where a given form is not attested, it is sometimes
reconstituted by means of comparative historical
linguistics and reference to forms in other
Algonquian languages.”
•Baldwin et al. (2016:398) “There are two primary
methods by which phonological details can be filled
in for Miami-Illinois data. One is by comparing all
the varying original transcriptions for the words,
and the other is by comparing the Miami-Illinois
words with cognate data from its closely related
sister languages.”
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In addition to the database…
•Outreach activities: word workshops
•Would-be word coiners will need some training
•principles of combination
•morphophonemics
•basic comparative linguistics methods
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Summer 2017 workshop
•Designed for community language learners,
language teachers, language activists
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5. Use in linguistics
1. Reconstruction!
•Bloomfield (1946):
reconstructed PA based
on Meskwaki (Fox),
Menominee, Cree,
Ojibwe
•geographically central
languages
•has more or less stood
up
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Reconstruction: “State of the art”
•Hewson (1993):
computer-generated
dictionary of PA
•now on-line
(https://protoalgonquian.atl
as-ling.ca//#!/help)
•flawed, but everybody
uses it because the
alternative is…
30
The alternative
•Zillions of articles, chapters, books
•Bloomfield, Hockett, Goddard, Pentland, Costa…
•like searching for buried treasure
31
Use in linguistics, cont.
2. Comparison and subgrouping!
(Valentine 2001)
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Lexical Lists (e.g. Swadesh list)
•Recent experience: tried to do lexical list across
Algonquian languages
•Methodological problem: doing comparative linguistics
demands rigorous form-meaning matches, but…
33
Lexical Lists
•Had to omit vast numbers of words due to
differences in lexical category, animacy features,
etc.
•Furthermore, structure of Algonquian words
severely limits where we can establish matches
34
Lexical Lists
•‘carry’ in Menominee
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How to do reconstruction with
words like this?
•Not every ‘carry’ word attested in Menominee may
be attested in another Algonquian language (or
vice-versa), but they share components (‘shoulder’,
‘mouth’, etc.)
•Reconstruct components instead of words
•Components (not words) are the relevant semantic
units, so comparing and reconstructing them and
the principles of their interaction can be more
enlightening than comparing full words
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6. Conclusion
•Goal: cross-family database of word components in
Algonquian languages
•Starting second year of pilot project
•two 1-year grants from UW Graduate School
•still in planning stages but have made progress
•Submitting NSF grant proposal soon
37
wa͞ewa͞enen
miigwech
i gweyen
kinanâskomitin
woliwon
thank you!
hunterlockwood@gmail.com; mmacaula@wisc.edu; dhieber@ucsb.edu
38
References
•Baldwin, Daryl, David J. Costa & Douglas Troy. 2016. Myaamiaataweenki
eekincikoonihkiinki eeyoonki aapisaataweenki: A Miami Language Digital Tool for Language
Reclamation. Language Documentation & Conservation 10:394-410.
•Bloomfield, Leonard. 1946. Algonquian. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 6:85-
129.
•Hewson, John. 1993. A Computer-Generated Dictionary of Proto-Algonquian. Hull,
Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
•Hieber, Daniel W. 2019. Data Format for Digital Linguistics. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1438589.
•Leonard, Wesley. 2007. Miami Language Reclamation in the Home: A Case Study. PhD
dissertation, UC-Berkeley.
•Noodin, Margaret. To appear. Ezhi-enendamang Anishinaabebiigeng: Theories of
Anishinaabe Rhetoric and Composition. Papers of the Algonquian Conference 49.
•Treuer, Anton, and Keller Papp. 2009. Aaniin Ekidong: Ojibwe Vocabulary Project. St. Paul:
Minnesota Humanities Center.
•Valentine, J. Randolph. 2001. Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
•on-line:
•https://www.voanews.com/usa/coining-new-words-key-revitalizing-native-american-
languages (Jessie Little Doe Baird)
•https://qz.com/1632990/iceland-is-inventing-a-new-vocabulary-for-a-high-tech-
future/ (Iceland quote) 39