Mandan language facts for kids

Mandan (Mandan: Nų́ų́ʔetaa íroo) was a language spoken by the Mandan people in North Dakota, United States. It belonged to the Siouan language family. Sadly, the Mandan language is now extinct. The last person who spoke it fluently, Edwin Benson, passed away in 2016.

Efforts to Revive the Mandan Language

Even though Mandan is no longer spoken fluently, many people are working hard to bring it back. These efforts are called revitalization.

The Last Speaker: Edwin Benson

By 2009, there was only one person left who could speak Mandan fluently. This was Dr. Edwin Benson (1931–2016). Before he died, a linguist from Estonia named Indrek Park worked with him. They spent more than two years together. Their goal was to record and save as much of the language as possible. A 2020 movie called To Save A Language shows how Indrek Park tried to help revive the language.

Teaching Mandan in Schools

Today, the Mandan language is being taught in local schools. This helps new generations learn the language. It is also taught at Fort Berthold Community College. Here, students can also learn the Hidatsa and Arikara languages.

Language Learning Resources

The MHA Language Project has created many tools to help people learn Mandan. These include a special app for learning words. They also have a dictionary and several books written in the language. The project offers a summer learning program. They also provide materials for teachers.

How Mandan is Related to Other Languages

Mandan is part of the large Siouan family. This family includes many languages spoken by Native American tribes.

Mandan's Unique Place

At first, people thought Mandan was very similar to the Hidatsa and Crow languages. However, the Mandan people lived close to the Hidatsa and Crow for many years. Because of this, their languages shared many words and sounds. This made it hard to figure out their exact relationship. So, Mandan is often seen as its own separate branch within the Siouan family.

Mandan Dialects

The Mandan language had two main ways of speaking, called dialects. These were Nuptare and Nuetare. Only the Nuptare dialect was still spoken in the 1900s. All the people who spoke Nuptare also spoke Hidatsa. In 1999, only six fluent Mandan speakers were still alive. As mentioned, Edwin Benson was the very last one.

Historical Interest in Mandan

In the 1830s, a European explorer named Prince Maximilian of Wied studied the Mandan language. He spent a lot of time recording Mandan words. He even compared Mandan words to Welsh words. Some people, like George Catlin, thought the Mandan people might have come from Wales. This idea was based on some interesting but unproven theories about the Mandan people's origins.

Secret Language of Medicine Men

Interestingly, the medicine men of the Mandan people had their own secret language. This was a special way of speaking used only by them.

Mandan Vocabulary and Sounds

Like many languages, Mandan used sounds to add meaning to words. This is called sound symbolism.

Sound Symbolism in Mandan

In Mandan, certain sounds could show if something was small or large.

• The sound /s/ often meant something was small or less intense.
• The sound /ʃ/ meant something was medium-sized.
• The sound /x/ meant something was large or more intense.

Here are some examples:

• síire meant "yellow."
• shíire meant "tawny" (a brownish-orange color).
• xíire meant "brown."

You can see this pattern in other words too:

• seró meant "tinkle" (a small, light sound).
• xeró meant "rattle" (a louder, stronger sound).