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This paper examines and documents the various types of jussive constructions occurring in Ojibwe, an endangered Algonquian language of North America. A jussive is a type of mediated command that tasks a second person interlocutor, real or imagined, to allow or ensure the fulfillment or realization of some event, condition, or state of being. This command has the force of the English let it rain or let me in. Rather than employing verbs instantiating permission, such as 'let' or 'may' in English, the principle jussive construction in Ojibwe is instantiated by verbs inflected for future (e.g., ga∼da) but without future meaning. This paper ultimately reveals that the use of the Ojibwe simple future as instantiating imperatives (an attested developmental pathway for some futures) facilitated the development of the principle jussive construction in Ojibwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 2.3.4 is a sketch of the gender systems of Algonquian (based on animacy) and Northern Iroquoian (based on biological sex). Chapter 2 begins with an overview of the genetic classification and areal distribution of the three language families that are the focus, Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Eskimo-Aleut. Section 2.3.3 is a description of word structure, contrasting the polysynthesis of Iroquoian (templatic with fixed order of morphemes) with that of Eskimo-Aleut (hierarchical with morpheme order determined by scope). [Extracted from the article]

This paper seeks to clarify the difference between two markers of future time reference in the Cree language. The preverbal particles ta- (∼ ka-) and wî- have both generally been treated as future tense markers. While future tense is found to be sufficient characterization for ta-, wî- requires further consideration, resulting in the conclusion that, rather than simple tense, it marks prospective aspect. The characterization of wi in this way ties together a number of alternate interpretations as secondary semantic and/or pragmatic offshoots of the basic category of the prospective. Though data are presented in the Plains Cree dialect, native-speaker judgments confirm the arguments for all the major western dialects, Plains, Woods, and Swampy Cree, as spoken in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes various changes which took place in the prehistory of Blackfoot as it developed from Proto-Algonquian. The topics include the formation of noninitial verb stems, verb stems with initial change, the outcome of Proto-Algonquian long vowels, other sound changes, and the body-part prefix mo-. The proposals in this paper are supported by many new etymologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This volume of Northern Paiute texts is the result of continued collaborative relationships between members of several Northern Paiute (Western Numic; Uto-Aztecan) speech communities and two linguists who have nearly 30 years of combined experience working on the language. The resulting documentary resource provides varied samples of naturally occurring speech—narratives recorded and analyzed by the editors as part of their own fieldwork as well as materials recorded of earlier generations of speakers. In one case, materials from three generations of speakers from the same speech community are provided. By providing access in a single volume to previously inaccessible texts from disparate sources and dialects, the editors give a rare and important contribution to the study of cross-dialectal variation for the indigenous languages of North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]