| Assiniboine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A' M̆oqazh | ||||
| Spoken in | Canada, United States | |||
| Region | Southern Saskatchewan in Canada and Montana in the United States | |||
| Native speakers | 200–250 (date missing) | |||
| Language family |
Siouan
|
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | asb | |||
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The Assiniboine language (also Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakota, Nakoda or Nakona[1]) is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. The name Asiniibwaan is an Ojibwe term meaning "Stone Siouans". Along with the closely related Stoney, Assiniboine is an n variety of the Dakotan languages, meaning its autonym is pronounced with an initial n (thus: Nakʰóta as opposed to Dakʰóta or Lakʰóta, and Nakʰóda or Nakʰóna as opposed to Dakʰód or Lakʰól). The Assiniboine language is also closely related to the Sioux language and to the Stoney language (called likewise Nakoda or Nakota), although they are hardly mutually intelligible.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal or postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | Aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | |
| Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | ʔ | |
| Voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | Voiceless | s | ʃ | x | h | |
| Ejective | sʼ | ʃʼ | xʼ | |||
| Voiced | z | ʒ | ɣ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
There are five oral vowels in Assiniboine, i, u, e, o, and a, and three nasal vowels, į, ų, and ą.