Doctoral Dissertation Research: A reference grammar of Potawatomi, A Native American language

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The essential elements that constitute the minimal scientific documentation of a language include a reference grammar, a dictionary, and transcribed narratives with translations and linguistic analysis. Reference grammars constitute a more comprehensive, highly detailed set of explanations and involve extensive linguistic analysis, so often the initial preliminary attempts at describing a language's patterns result in a short description known as a "sketch," with a later publication of a reference grammar following subsequent scientific research. In some cases, linguists develop the sketch but never circle back to publish that reference grammar, creating a large gap in the documentation. This is the case for numerous languages that were described and analyzed in the first half of the twentieth century, including Potawatomi (also called Bodéwadmimwen or Bodwéwadmimwen), a critically endangered Algonquian language. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. It is estimated that there are less than 10 fluent native speakers of Potawatomi today, all elderly. Considerable effort is being made towards language revitalization, but materials for training advanced speakers are in short supply. This project will fund dissertation research that will produce a reference grammar for Potawatomi. Broader impacts of the project include making the planned documentation will be useful to both linguists and community members, by producing an example-driven, digital presentation version of the grammar for language teachers and students. In this dissertation project, doctoral student Hunter Lockwood will research and produce the first grammar of Potawatomi since Charles Hockett's 1939 sketch of the language in his own dissertation. Data from Hockett are often cited in theoretical linguistics; this dissertation will add depth and breadth to the contribution the language can make to linguistic science. For example, almost no work has been done on Potawatomi syntax or semantics; this dissertation will fill those gaps in the documentary record. This reflects the continued collaboration between the Forest County Potawatomi Community and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previous collaboration between these two institutions, also with funding from the National Science Foundation's Documenting Endangered Languages Program, has resulted in a bilingual dictionary and a corpus of transcribed stories and natural speech. As a result, the dissertation research will utilize methods relying on modern digital tools for building and analyzing large sets of language data collected in a corpus, integrating data from the corpus and dictionary in the analysis.