Arapaho

Arapaho (Hinono’eitiit)

Arapaho, which is also spelled Arapahoe or Arrapahoe, is an Algonquian language
with about 1,000 speakers in Wyoming, most of whom are elderly. The Arapaho are
currently working to revitalize their language among the younger members of their
nation.

There are two main groups of Arapaho: the Nortern Arapaho, who live in Wyoming,
and the Southern Arapaho, who live in Oklahoma with the Cheyenne. The Arapaho
call themselves Hinono’eiteen (‘our people’).

Arapaho is closely related to Gros Ventre (Ahe/A’ananin) to the extent that the
two languages are largely mutually comprehsible.

Arapaho pronuncation

Arapaho pronunciation

Arapaho is a tonal language and tones are marked as follows:

  • é, í, ó, ú = high tone
  • ê, î, ô, û = falling tone

Sample text in Arapaho

nííto’ ‘eet’oo3íteenoo
hínee noowúúhu’ nihníí3oonou’u
hínee nei3ébii Alonzo Moss
hínee noowuuhu’ nihwon 3i’okuutonou’u
tih’oo3itee3i’ hínee noowunéno’ heesheenetíí3i’
nuhu’uunoh niis hinono’éítino’ heetebinouhúúni3i’
hoowúúhu’ woo3ééno’ he’niinosou heenetí3i’

Translation

First I’ll tell a story.
I went down there to Oklahoma with my brother in law Alonzo Moss.
I went down there to be with them.
When the Oklahoma people tell how they’ve lost our language, they are pitiful.
There aren’t many who still speak it.

Source: http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~arapaho/recording_index/audio_index.html

Links

Information about the Arapaho Language
http://www.native-languages.org/arapaho.htm
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~arapaho/

A guide to learning the Arapaho language
http://www.eslbilingualed.org/language.htm

The Arapaho Project at the University of Colorado
http://www.colorado.edu/csilw/newarapproj2.htm

Related languages

Abenaki,
Arapaho,
Blackfoot,
Cheyenne,
Cree,
Delaware,
Massachusett,
Miami,
Míkmaq,
Montagnais,
Naskapi,
Ojibwe,
Potawatomi,
Shawnee

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app

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