Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 June 8

= June 8 =

Native American lingua franca
I happened across a Facebook group with this title earlier today and my interest was piqued. It turned out to be a group that simply learns the rudiments of a different Native American language every six months and uses it for online conversation. What I am interested in, however, having recently read up on Plains Indian Sign Language, is whether at any time since the beginning of European colonisation there has been a concerted effort among Native (North) Americans to construct a lingua franca, either signed or spoken. I would also be interested in similar developments among diverse native population groups in other colonised regions of the world (Africa, Australia, etc.). Evan (talk&#124;contribs) 04:47, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * My first thought was Chinook Jargon, which leads to Category:North America Native-based pidgins and creoles with several other similar articles. Adam Bishop (talk) 10:07, 8 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Evan (talk&#124;contribs) 19:25, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I will caution that Chinook Jargon and Plains Sign Language are about as closely related as Nicaraguan Sign Language and Dutch. That is, they are all languages. μηδείς (talk) 01:19, 9 June 2016 (UTC)


 * See List of lingua francas. Besides that, other Native American languages were sometimes adopted as a lingua franca for purposes of intertribal communication by surrounding peoples. One example of this was Unami (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania). —Stephen (talk) 05:37, 9 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, everybody! I realize, obviously, that Native American languages were and are hugely diverse; I'm only interested in the general concept of a lingua franca as it existed in the Americas prior to and (especially) after the intrusion of European imperialism. Underlying the question, I guess, was the model of nineteenth- and twentieth-century linguistic revivalism that brought about the preservation and even repopularization of Hebrew, Catalá, and many Celtic languages, to name a few. It occurred to me that, fragmentary and internally diverse as "Native American" identity is, any concerted effort among members of different tribes to recognize their shared ethnic heritage over against white settlers (and later that particular brand of white inhabitant of the United States known as "Americans") might both have sought and have benefited from a continent-wide lingua franca. Thanks everyone for the replies. Lots of interesting stuff, though nothing quite so grand as I was imagining. Evan (talk&#124;contribs) 02:06, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

I need pronunciation help with the following words?
1. How do you pronounce Nunavut? I don't want to sound like I'm saying none of it. 2. How do you pronounce Grise Fiord and Alessia Cara? 2001:569:766D:AB00:B417:DEBC:A1A9:67 (talk) 22:48, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * According to the article Nunavut, it is pronounced /ˈnuːnəˌvʊt/ — that is, NOON uh voot, the last syllable rhyming with foot.
 * The article Alessia Cara implies that it pronounced the Italian way, as [aˈlɛssja kaˈrattʃolo]; that is, ah LESS yuh kah RAH choh loh. Loraof (talk) 23:16, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * According to here https://www.howtopronounce.com/grise-fiord/, which I found by googling Grise Fiord pronunciation, it sounds like grace fyord. Loraof (talk) 23:24, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * That is the proper pronunciation of Nunavut, but it's also typically pronounced /ˈnʊnəˌvʊt/, with the same first and third vowel (i.e. the vowel in "foot"). (It is never pronounced like "none of it", at least not by any Canadian I have ever heard.) Adam Bishop (talk) 23:49, 8 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Where's User:CambridgeBayWeather when you need him? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:19, 9 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Nun-a-vut or Nu-na-vut (but not none-of-it) from nuna meaning land. Grease Fiord. Hmmm, perhaps I should record the pronunciations and add them. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 20:52, 9 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Forvo has pronunciations at http://forvo.com/search/Nunavut/. See also Category:Radio stations in Nunavut.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 21:02, 9 June 2016 (UTC)


 * The Forvo one is good but the Grise Fiord is odd. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 21:46, 9 June 2016 (UTC)