| American Indian English | |
|---|---|
| Region | Indian Country |
Native speakers | 9,666,058 (2020 census)[1][2] |
Early forms | |
| Latin (English alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
 Population of Native Americans by county according to the 2020 United States census. | |
American Indian English orNative American English is a diverse collection ofEnglish dialects spoken by manyAmerican Indians andAlaska Natives,[3] notwithstandingindigenous languages also spoken in the United States, of which only a few are in daily use. For the sake of comparison, this article focuses on similarities across varieties of American Indian English that unite it in contrast to a "typical" English variety withstandard grammar and aGeneral American accent.
Thephonemic contrasts betweenfront vowels in standard English are not always maintained in American Indian dialects of English. For example, Navajo English may haveKIT–DRESS,KIT–FLEECE, orFACE–DRESSmergers, particularly word-medially.Isleta English maintains these contrasts, though according to different patterns than standard English.[4] In the English of allColorado River Indians (namely,Mohave,Hopi, andNavajo), front vowels tend to shift, often one degreelower than standard English vowels.[5]
Old speakers ofLumbee English share thePRICE vowel, and some other pronunciation and vocabulary features, in common withOuter Banks English, as well as some grammatical features in common withAfrican-American Vernacular English.[6]
Th-stopping is common inCheyenne andTsimshian English, and certainly many other varieties of Native American English: replacing initial/θ/ and/ð/ with/t/ and/d/, respectively.[7] Cheyenne and Navajo English, among others, follow General American patterns ofglottal replacement oft, plus botht- andd-glottalization at the ends of syllables. The result isBrad fed the wet cat sounding likeBra' fe' the we' ca'.[8]
Features ofprosody substantially contribute to differences between American Indian and General American accents.[8] For example, even within the English of Colorado River Indians, there are differing rules for stress placement on words. However, these dialects do have similar intonation patterns, markedly different fromGeneral American: a lower level of pitch fluctuation and an absence of a rising intonation in questions. This is commonly stereotyped inAmerican popular culture as a monotone, subdued, or emotionless sound quality.[9]
A 2016 study of various English-speaking indigenous North Americans (Slavey,Standing RockLakotas, and diverse Indian students atDartmouth College) found that they all used uniquely sharedprosodic features for occasional emphasis, irony, or playfulness in casual peer interactions, yet rarely in formal interactions. The prosodic choices are presumably a way for these speakers to index (tap into) a shared "Native" identity. The documented sounds of this "Pan-Indian" identity include higher pitch on post-stressed syllables (rather than stressed syllables); use of high-rising, mid, or high-falling (rather than simple falling) intonation at the ends of sentences;vowel lengthening at the ends of sentences; andsyllable timing (instead of stress timing).[10]
American Indian English shows enormous heterogeneity in terms of grammatical structures. As a whole, it characteristically uses plural and possessive markers less than standard English (for example,one of the dogs is here). Navajo,Northern Ute, and many other varieties of Indian English may simply never use plural markers for nouns.[11] Lack of other verb markers is commonly reported in Indian speech too, like an absence of standard English's "-ed" or "-s" endings forverb tense. Verbs likebe,have, andget are also widely deleted, and some varieties of American Indian English add plural markers tomass nouns: thus,furnitures,homeworks,foods, etc. In general, verb constructions within American Indian English are distinctive and even vary wildly from tribe to tribe.[12]
Grammatical gender inpronouns (she, her, him, etc.) does not always align with thenatural gender of areferent, particularly at the ends of sentences, in some American Indian English. For example, this is greatly documented inMohave and Cheyenne English.[13] Mohave and Ute English even delete implied pronouns altogether, as inI didn't know where you were, was too busy to look, waited for you at school, but weren't there.[14]