Gros Ventre language
Extinct Arapahoan language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atsina, or Gros Ventre (also known as Aaniiih, Ananin, Ahahnelin, Ahe, A’ani, and ʔɔʔɔɔɔniiih),[3] is the ancestral language of the Gros Ventre people of what is today Montana. The last fluent speaker died in 2007,[1] though revitalization efforts are underway.
| Gros Ventre | |
|---|---|
| 'ɔ'ɔ́ɔ́ɔ́naakíit'ɔ | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Montana |
| Ethnicity | Gros Ventre |
| Extinct | 2007, with the death of Theresa Lamebull[1] |
| Revival | 45 self-identified speakers (2009–2013)[2] |
| Official status | |
Official language in | United States (Fort Belknap Indian Community, Montana) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ats |
| Glottolog | gros1243 |
| ELP | Gros Ventre |
Historical extent of the language | |
 Gros Ventre is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
History
Atsina is the name applied by specialists in Algonquian linguistics. Arapaho and Atsina are dialects of a common language usually designated by scholars as "Arapaho-Atsina". Historically, this language had five dialects, and on occasion specialists add a third dialect name to the label, resulting in the designation, "Arapaho-Atsina-Nawathinehena".[1] Compared with Arapaho proper, Gros Ventre had three additional phonemes /tʲ/, /ts/, /kʲ/, and /bʲ/, and lacked the velar fricative /x/.
Theresa Lamebull taught the language at Fort Belknap College (now Aaniiih Nakoda College), and helped develop a dictionary using the Phraselator when she was 109.[4]
As of 2012, the White Clay Immersion School at Aaniiih Nakoda College was teaching the language to 26 students, up from 11 students in 2006.[3][5]
