Hidatsa language
- noun
- The Hidatsa language is considered critically endangered, with only a few native speakers remaining.
Examples
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She is taking a course to learn the Hidatsa language and help preserve her cultural heritage.
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Linguists have documented traditional stories told in the Hidatsa language.
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The Hidatsa language is rich in history.
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Many people are learning the Hidatsa language today.
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Linguists have documented traditional stories told in the Hidatsa language.
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She is taking a course to learn the Hidatsa language and help preserve her cultural heritage.
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The Hidatsa language is considered critically endangered, with only a few native speakers remaining.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A Native American language spoken by the Hidatsa people in North Dakota
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase simply names the language associated with the Hidatsa people: combining the proper name 'Hidatsa' with 'language' yields 'the language spoken by the Hidatsa'. The noun-noun composition 'X language' is a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can derive this meaning.
Etymology
Hidatsa language comes from the name of the Hidatsa people, a group who lived along the Missouri River. Imagine families and elders telling old stories by the river in their own speech — that speech is the Hidatsa language, so the name means 'the language spoken by the Hidatsa people'.