American Indian Languages, Especially Mesquakie and Algonkian

FAIN: FT-10752-70

Karen Brockman
Miami University (Oxford, OH 45056-1846)

Fellow to study Mesquakie and Algonkian languages and other non-related language families at University of California at Berkeley. Fellow had done work among Mesquakie (Fox) Indians in Iowa and is impressed by their success in maintaining their identity as Mesquakies and their efforts to set up a school system to enable their children to cope with the white man's world. To do this, the Mesquakies need far more linguistic work. Paul Boohis of the Smithsonian is currently working on a vocabulary; fellow more concerned with phonetic differences between Mesquakie and English (which, for example, cause the Mesquakies to say "sinning" instead of "singing"). Study also cast light on processes of thought and communication, since Indian languages reveal various ways of structuring time and other aspects of reality.