The Miami-Illinois Language (Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A seminal work of impeccable scholarship, The Miami-Illinois Language is very highly recommended for inclusion into Native American Studies in general, and Native American Linguistics reference collections in particular."-Wisconsin Bookwatch (Wisconsin Bookwatch )

Product Description

The Miami-Illinois Language reconstructs the language spoken by the Miami and the Illinois Native Americans. During the latter half of the seventeenth century both Native communities lived in the region to the south of Lake Michigan in present-day Illinois and Indiana. The French and Indian War, followed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by massive influxes of white settlers into the Ohio River Valley, proved disastrous for both Native groups. Reduced in number by warfare and disease, the Illinois (now called the Peorias) along with half of the Miamis relocated first to Kansas and then to northeast Oklahoma, while the other half of the Miamis remained in northern Indiana.

The Miami and the Illinois Native Americans speak closely related dialects of a language of the Algonquian language family. Linguist David J. Costa reconstructs key elements of their language from available historical sources, close textual analysis of surviving stories, and comparison with related Algonquian languages. The result is the first overview of the Miami-Illinois language.

David J. Costa works as a professional linguist in Native language revitalization and lives in northern California.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 566 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803215142
• ISBN-13: 978-0803215146
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,900,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very interesting analysis of extant sources for Illinois, January 26, 2005

By	D. J. Eddyshaw (Swansea United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is NOT an "exhaustive grammar" of Miami-Illinois; there is no coverage of word formation (a major component of the grammar of an Algonquian language) nor of syntax. One hopes Costa will go on to cover these areas (so far as such a thing is possible given the absence of native speakers) because his account of the historical phonology and the morphology of Miami-Illinois (which is what this book consists of) really is very good. I suspect it would be most likely to appeal to Algonquianists; it should be pretty useful to the brave souls striving to revive the language, whom one wishes well. Costa says his target audience includes linguists interested in learning about the Algonquian languages, and I think it would indeed be useful for them, especially because of the fairly conservative phonological nature of Illinois compared with eg Ojibwe. A minor quibble: nowhere is the allomorphism of the personal prefixes ni-/nint- ki-/kit- a-/at- mentioned, even though the book has plenty of examples of it; this would mystify readers unfamiliar with other Algonquian languages.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complex technical map of how people once communicated, April 19, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Compiled by professional linguist David J. Costa, The Miami-Illinois Language is an exhaustive grammatical reconstruction of the language spoken by the Miami and the Illinois Native Americans -- dialects of the Algonquian language family. The populations of the speakers of these languages were decimated by warfare and disease; now, The Miami-Illinois Language pieces together a complex technical map of how people once communicated, with information from surviving stories, historical sources, comparison with related languages and more. A seminal work of impeccable scholarship, The Miami-Illinois Language is very highly recommended for inclusion into Native American Studies in general, and Native American Linguistics reference collections in particular.