Customer Reviews

Western Abenaki Dictionary, Volume 1: Abenaki-English (Western Abenaki Dictionary Vol. 1)

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Through Hollywood and TV, people have become familiar with the western Indian tribes such as the Lakota and Cheyenne. But in the East, the Wabanaki-Abenaki peoples have had a tremendous influence on American history as well.

This Abenaki-English dictionary captures an extremely difficult language and fosters cross-cultural understanding. Although it's a bit awkward to look up specific terms because the Abenaki terms are listed first, not the English ones, this is a valuable treasure to writers, scholars and anyone seeking to gain greater knowledge of the Abenaki people.

This thorough dictionary includes more than 13,000 Abenaki words, including many related word forms illustrating the complexity of Abenaki verbs. There's also a glossary of word roots and sections on pronunciation, orthography, and grammar, as well as some comments on dialects and loanwords. The main drawback to this book is that it is volume 1 of a two-volume set, presenting an Abenaki-English dictionary only. For some reason the second volume, an English-Abenaki dictionary, is not carried by amazon.com, even though it would probably be of more interest to the general readership.