Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary

FAIN: PD-50007-08

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)
Mark Joseph Awakuni-Swetland (Project Director: December 2007 to January 2013)
Catherine Rudin (Co Project Director: December 2007 to January 2013)

The preparation of an online dictionary of Omaha and Ponca, mutually intelligible Siouan languages spoken in Nebraska and Oklahoma.

The project would create a comprehensive dictionary of Omaha and Ponca at a time when there are only a few dozen elderly fluent speakers. Data would be drawn from archival and published documents from nearly a dozen sources. The largest source is an unpublished word list compiled by ethnologist James Owen Dorsey in the late nineteenth century, which includes approximately 20,000 entries written in a complicated orthography. All materials would be digitized and transcribed into the contemporary orthographies used by tribal members and educators. The dictionary would be in a Structured Queried Language database that conforms to standards promulgated under the Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data. Omaha has a complex verbal morphology with the possibility of multiple affixes. All words, especially verbs, would be analyzed to determine their roots, their appropriate placement in the dictionary, and which affixed forms should be included. The dictionary would contain a brief grammatical sketch, including a description of the phonemes of the language, its major phonological and morphological patterns, and an outline of sentence structure. This project would make freely available to native communities, students, and researchers a vast collection of Omaha and Ponca language.

Associated Products

Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary (Web Resource)
Title: Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary
Author: University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
Author: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Omaha Language Class
Abstract: The Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary is an online site of Omaha and Ponca language materials collected by James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) archived at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This collection has been digitized and is being entered into a database, containing over 13,400 entries. Both the database and online dictionary are public access and are searchable on Omaha and English terms. As of December 2012 the online dictionary has grown to 2,650 entries. The site has been created by the University of Nebraska Omaha Language Class in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities grant #PD-50007-08
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://omahaponca.unl.edu
Primary URL Description: Welcome to the Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary public access site. Here you can explore the Omaha and Ponca languages. The primary data come from the unpublished materials collected by James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) and housed in the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. You are able to search on Omaha and English terms. This is a resource that will continue to grow with regular updates. This site is a creation of the University of Nebraska Omaha Language Class in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities grant #PD-50007-08 The compilers of this dictionary web site are solely responsible for its contents.

Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary (Web Resource)
Title: Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary
Author: University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
Author: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Omaha Language Class
Abstract: The Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary is an online resource containing the unpublished Omaha and Ponca language materials collected by James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895), archived at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The collection has been digitized and the data are being entered into a database created by the University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. As of December 2012 the database contained over 13,400 entries. Both the database and dictionary are public access and searchable on Omaha and English terms. As of December 2012 the online dictionary had grown to 2,600 terms. The site is a creation of the University of Nebraska Omaha Language Class in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. It is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities grant #PD-50007-08.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://omahaponca.unl.edu

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