Sauk People - Language

Language

Sauk (or Sac) is a part of the Algonquian language family. It is very closely related to the varieties spoken by the Fox and the Kickapoo tribes, so the three are often described by linguists as dialects of the same language. Each of the dialects contains archaisms and innovations that distinguish them from each other, and Sauk and Fox appear to be the most closely related of the three (Goddard 1978). Sauk is also considered to be mutually intelligible, to a point, with Fox. In their own language, the Sauk at one time referred to themselves as asakiwaki, “people of the outlet. (Bonvillain 1995)”

The Sauk people have a syllabic orthography for their language and there exists a Primer Book which was printed in 1977 (based on a “traditional” syllabary which existed in 1906), so that the modern-day Sauk people may learn to write as well as speak their ancestral tongue. A newer orthography was proposed around 1994 to better aid in language revival, since the former syllabary was targeted towards the few remaining native speakers of Sauk; the more recent orthography was presented with native English speakers in mind (Müller 1994).

Sauk has so few speakers that it is considered one of the many endangered languages native to North America.

In 2012, Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma began to offer a Sauk language course.