Menominee Language - Language Family

Language Family

Menominee is an Algonquian language, part of the larger family of Algic languages. Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999) classify it with the Central and Plains Algonquian languages, along with languages like Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cree-Montagnais, and Eastern Great Lakes languages like Ojibwe.

In his more controversial classification of American Indian languages, Joseph Greenberg places the Algic family within a family which he calls Almosan. The classification was first proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929. It groups Algic with other language families including Kutenai, otherwise thought to be an isolate, and Mosan, which includes Wakashan, Chimakuan, and Salishan. The Mosan family proposal is currently considered to be unfounded.

Read more about this topic:  Menominee Language

Famous quotes containing the words language and/or family:

    I invented the colors of the vowels!—A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green—I made rules for the form and movement of each consonant, and, and with instinctive rhythms, I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible, some day, to all the senses.
    Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)

    ... what a family is without a steward, a ship without a pilot, a flock without a shepherd, a body without a head, the same, I think, is a kingdom without the health and safety of a good monarch.
    Elizabeth I (1533–1603)