Hidatsa language

Hidatsa
hiraaciré’
Native toUnited States
RegionNorth Dakota, Montana, South Dakota
EthnicityHidatsa
Native speakers
<65 (2019)[1]
Siouan
Language codes
ISO 639-3hid
Glottologhida1246
ELPHidatsa
Linguasphere64-AAA-a
Hidatsa is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Hidatsa /hɪˈdɑːtsə/[2] is an endangered Siouan language that is related to the Crow language. It is spoken by the Hidatsa tribe, primarily in North Dakota and South Dakota.

A description of Hidatsa-Mandan culture, including a grammar and vocabulary of the language, was published in 1877 by Washington Matthews, a government physician who lived among the Hidatsa at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.[3]

More recently, the language has been the subject of work in the generative grammar tradition.[4]

In 2019, it was estimated that there were less than 65 fluent speakers of the language.[5]

  1. ^ Data Center States Results
  2. ^ Park, Indrek. 2012. A Grammar of Hidatsa. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Indiana, Bloomington.
  3. ^ Matthews, Washington (1877). Ethnography and philology of the Hidatsa Indians. Government Printing Office.
  4. ^ Matthews, G.H. (1965). Hidatsa Syntax. Mouton.
  5. ^ "Less than 65 people speak native languages formerly common on northern plains". 2019-08-26.