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The Siouan (a.k.a. Siouan proper, Western Siouan) languages are a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 of North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, and the second largest indigenous language family in North America, after Algonquian. The Siouan family is related to the Catawban family
Catawban languages

The Catawban languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a sub-family of the larger Siouan languages....
, together making up the Siouan-Catawban family
Siouan-Catawban languages

Siouan?Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains of North America with a few outlier languages in the east....
. Some authors use the term Siouan to refer to the Siouan-Catawban family and the term Siouan proper to refer to the Siouan family.

While the Lakota, Dakota
Sioux

Sioux are a Native Americans in the United States and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects....
, and Nakota
Sioux

Sioux are a Native Americans in the United States and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects....
 comprise "the Great Sioux Nation
Great Sioux Nation

The Great Sioux Nation is a general term sometimes applied to the Sioux. It is also sometimes applied to a hypothetical state in the American West and Midwest United States of America, which would occupy the following recognized Indian Reservations:...
", the language family is much broader and includes "the old speakers", the Ho-Chunk
Ho-Chunk

The Ho-Chunk, or Winnebago , are a tribe of Native Americans in the United States, native to what are now Wisconsin and Illinois....
 and their linguistic cousins, the Crow
Crow Nation

The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Aps?alooke, are a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley and now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana....
.






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The Siouan (a.k.a. Siouan proper, Western Siouan) languages are a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 of North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, and the second largest indigenous language family in North America, after Algonquian. The Siouan family is related to the Catawban family
Catawban languages

The Catawban languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a sub-family of the larger Siouan languages....
, together making up the Siouan-Catawban family
Siouan-Catawban languages

Siouan?Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains of North America with a few outlier languages in the east....
. Some authors use the term Siouan to refer to the Siouan-Catawban family and the term Siouan proper to refer to the Siouan family.

While the Lakota, Dakota
Sioux

Sioux are a Native Americans in the United States and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects....
, and Nakota
Sioux

Sioux are a Native Americans in the United States and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects....
 comprise "the Great Sioux Nation
Great Sioux Nation

The Great Sioux Nation is a general term sometimes applied to the Sioux. It is also sometimes applied to a hypothetical state in the American West and Midwest United States of America, which would occupy the following recognized Indian Reservations:...
", the language family is much broader and includes "the old speakers", the Ho-Chunk
Ho-Chunk

The Ho-Chunk, or Winnebago , are a tribe of Native Americans in the United States, native to what are now Wisconsin and Illinois....
 and their linguistic cousins, the Crow
Crow Nation

The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Aps?alooke, are a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley and now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana....
. The Siouan family also extends eastward to Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 and southward to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an oceanic basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba....
.

While social migrations have yet to be definitively worked out, linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of Siouan people, with migrations over a thousand years ago from North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
 and Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 to Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
, then both down the Ohio River
Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles long and is located in the eastern United States....
 to the Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
 and up to the Missouri
Missouri

Missouri is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska....
, and across Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
 to Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
 and Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
, home of the Dakota
DAKOTA

For other meanings of the word including the United States U.S. state please see DakotaThe Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications is a software toolkit developed by engineers at Sandia National Laboratories to provide a flexible, extensible interface between analysis codes and iterative systems analysis methods...
.

Family division


The Siouan family consists of 17 languages with various sub-languages:

I. Missouri River Siouan (a.k.a. Crow-Hidatsa)
1. Crow
Crow language

Crow is a Missouri Valley Siouan languages spoken primarily by the Crow Nation in present-day southeastern Montana. It is has one of the larger populations of Indigenous languages of the Americas languages with 4,280 speakers according to the 1990 US Census....
 (a.k.a. Absaroka, Apsaroka, Apsaalooke, Upsaroka)
2. Hidatsa (a.k.a. Gros Ventre, Minitari, Minnetaree)
II. Mandan Siouan
3. Mandan
Mandan language

Mandan is an endangered language Siouan languages language....
a. Nuptare b. Neutare III. Mississippi Valley Siouan (a.k.a. Central Siouan)
A. Dakotan (a.k.a. Sioux-Assiniboine-Stoney)
4. Sioux
Sioux language

Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 26,000 Sioux, making it the fifth most spoken Indigenous languages of the Americas in North America , behind Navajo language, Cree language, Inuit language and Anishinaabe language....
 a. Santee-Sisseton (a.k.a. Santee, Eastern Sioux, Dakota) i. Santee ii. Sisseton b. Yankton-Yanktonai (a.k.a. Yankton, Central Sioux, Dakota) i. Yankton ii. Yanktonai c. Teton
Lakota language

Lakota is one of the three languages of the Sioux, of the Siouan languages family. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages, and is considered by most linguists one of the three major Variety of the Sioux language....
 (a.k.a. Lakhota, Lakota, Western Sioux) i. Northern Teton ii. Southern Teton 5. Assiniboine
Assiniboine language

The Assiniboine language is a Nakotan Siouan languages of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. The name Asiniibwaan is an Ojibwe language term meaning "Stone Siouans"....
 (a.k.a. Assiniboin) 6. Stoney
Nakoda (people)

The Nakoda are a First Nation group, indigenous to both Canada and the United States.They inhabit large parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana....
 (a.k.a. Alberta Assiniboine)
B. Chiwere-Winnebago (a.k.a. Chiwere)
7. Chiwere
Chiwere language

Chiwere is a Siouan languages originally spoken by the Missouri tribe, Otoe tribe, and Iowa tribe peoples, who originated in the Great Lakes region but later moved throughout the midwest and plains....
 (a.k.a. Ioway-Otoe-Missouria, Ioway-Otoe) a. Iowa
Iowa tribe

The Iowa , also known as the B?xoje, are a Native Americans in the United States Sioux people. Their name has been said to come from ayuhwa , but they call themselves B?xoje ....
 (a.k.a. Ioway) b. Otoe
Otoe tribe

The Otoe or Oto are a Native Americans in the United States people. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is closely related to that of the Iowa tribe and Missouri tribe....
 (a.k.a. Oto, Jiwere) c. Missouria (a.k.a. Missouri) 8. Winnebago
Winnebago language

The Winnebago language is the language of Ho-Chunk tribe of Native Americans in the United States. The language is part of the Siouan languages language family, and is closely related to the languages of the Iowa tribe, Missouri tribe, and Oto tribe....
 (a.k.a. Hocák, Hochunk, Hochank, Hocangara, Hotcangara, Hochangara)
C. Dhegiha (a.k.a. Dhegihan)
9. Omaha-Ponca
Omaha-Ponca language

Omaha-Ponca is a Siouan language spoken by the Ponca and Omaha people of Nebraska and the Ponca people of Oklahoma. There are today only 60 speakers of Omaha, and 25 fluent speakers, all over 60, and a handful of semi-fluent speakers of Ponca....
 a. Omaha
Omaha (tribe)

The Omaha tribe is a Native Americans in the United States tribe that currently resides on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States....
 b. Ponca (a.k.a. Ponka) 10. Kansa-Osage a. Kansa
Kaw (tribe)

The Kaw are an Native Americans in the United States people of the central Midwestern United States. The tribe known as "Kaw" have also been known as the "Wind People," "People of water," Kansa, Kaza, Kosa, and Kasa....
 (a.k.a. Kanza, Kaw) (†) b. Osage 11. Quapaw
Quapaw

The Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas....
 (a.k.a. Kwapa, Kwapaw, Arkansas) (†) IV. Ohio Valley Siouan (a.k.a. Southeastern Siouan)
A. Virginia Siouan
12. Tutelo
Tutelo

Tutelo was a Siouan tribe, closely related to the Monacan and Manahoac peoples known to be living above the Fall Line in Virginia by 1607.The Tutelo first appear in 1671, when the Batts and Fallam expedition visited "Totero Town" near what is now Salem, Virginia....
 13. Saponi
Saponi

Saponi, is the name of one of the eastern Siouan tribes related to the Tutelo, Occaneechi, Monacan , Manahoac and other eastern Siouan peoples, whose ancestral homeland is in North Carolina and Virginia....
 (a.k.a. Saponey) (†) 14. Moniton (a.k.a. Monacan) (†) 15. Occaneechi
Occaneechi

The Occaneechi or Occoneechee were Indigenous peoples of the Americas related to the Saponi or Sappony, Tutelo or Totaro, Eno and other eastern Siouan languages peoples living in the Piedmont region of present-day North Carolina and Virginia....
B. Mississippi Siouan (a.k.a. Ofo-Biloxi) (†)
16. Biloxi (†) 17. Ofo
OFO

Ofo may refer to:*Orbiting Frog Otolith*Ofo Language an indigenous language of the lower Mississippi Valley....
 (a.k.a. Ofogoula) (†)

(†) - Extinct (dormant) language
Extinct language

An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers .Extinct languages may be contrasted with Language death: no longer spoken as a main language....


Another view of both the Dakotan and Mississippi Valley branches is to represent them as dialect continuum
Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
s. Notice: This article does not have information about the Virginia Siouan group.

Genetic relations


Some linguists associate Siouan languages with Caddoan
Caddoan languages

The Caddoan languages are a language family of Native American languages. They are spoken across the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota to Oklahoma....
 and Iroquoian languages
Iroquoian languages

The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native Americans in the United States language family. The language family, amongst others, includes Mohawk language, Wyandot language and Cherokee language....
 in a Macro-Siouan
Macro-Siouan languages

The Macro-Siouan languages are a proposed language family that would include the Siouan languages, Iroquoian languages, and Caddoan languages families....
 language family. However, such linguistic associations are yet to be proven.

See also


  • Siouan-Catawban languages
    Siouan-Catawban languages

    Siouan?Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains of North America with a few outlier languages in the east....


Bibliography


  • Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L. (2001). The Siouan languages. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94-114). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-050400-7.


External links


  • (Ethnologue)