A Concise Dictionary of Nakoda (Assiniboine) brings to life the hopes
and dreams of Nakoda (Assiniboine) elders. The Nakoda language--also
known as Assiniboine, an Ojibwe ethnonym meaning "Stone Enemy"--is an
endangered Siouan language of the Mississippi Valley branch spoken in
southern Saskatchewan and northern Montana. Nakoda belongs to the
Dakotan dialectal continuum, which includes Dakota, Lakota, and Stoney.
The fieldwork for this project was done between 2018 and 2020 with Elder
Wilma Kennedy, one of the last fluent speakers living in Carry The
Kettle, Saskatchewan. The volume brings together many valuable stories
and colorful expressions as well as archaic words that do not appear in
any known sources of the language. Particular care was taken to obtain
the derivatives of many verbal stems, along with sentences for many of
the verbs, adverbs, and other function words.
More than a list of words, this volume contains definitions and standard
spellings along with a wealth of grammatical information. The dictionary
contains more than 6,000 Nakoda-to-English translations, more than 3,000
English-to-Nakoda translations, and more than 1,500 sentences that will
be extremely helpful for those interested in mastering the different
usages of words and the various sentence patterns of the language. This
dictionary of Nakoda can be used by anyone interested in learning or
would like to refresh their knowledge of the language.
Vincent Collette is a visiting professor of linguistics at the
University of Québec at Chicoutimi. He is the editor of Nakón-i'a wo!:
Beginning Nakoda and other works. Wilma Kennedy (Heȟága hóta'į
wį́yą, Echo of the Elk Woman; 1923-2020) was an educator, language
activist, and knowledge keeper of the Nakoda community. She is the
coauthor of
Nakón-i'a wo!: Beginning Nakoda
.
