740 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



§ 1. THE DIALECT OF THE FOX 



The Fox speak a dialect of the central group of Algonquian Indians. 

 By "central group" is meant the Algonquian tribes that live or have 

 lived about the Great Lakes, particularly in the adjoining regions 

 west and south, and now embraced by the territory of the states of 

 Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The 

 group contains many dialects, some of which are the Ojibwa, Ottawa, 

 Potawatomi, Menominee, Kickapoo, Sauk and Fox. 



The dialects present great similarity in the absolute forms of many 

 words; but marked differences are noticed in the spoken language. 

 Some of the differences are so wide as to make many of the dialects 

 mutually unintelligible. This lack of mutual comprehension is due 

 in some measure to variations of intonation and idiom, and in a 

 certain degree to slight differences of phonetics and grammatical 

 forms. 



The extent of diversity among the dialects varies; for instance, 

 Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi are so closely related that a mem- 

 ber of any one of the three experiences only slight difficulty in acquir- 

 ing a fluent use of the other's dialect. The transition from Ojibwa, 

 Ottawa, and Potawatomi to Menominee is wider, and it is further 

 still to Kickapoo and to Sauk and Fox. 



Some of the dialects, like the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, 

 are disintegrating. The breaking-up is not uniform throughout a 

 dialect : it is faster in the regions where civilized influences predomi- 

 nate or play a controlling force; while the purer forms are main- 

 tained in the places where ideas of the old-time life and associations 

 have a chance to live and survive. The dialect of the Mexican band 

 of Kickapoo is holding its own with great vigor; but not quite the 

 same can be said for Menominee or Sauk. Sauk and Fox are the same 

 speech with feeble differences of intonation and idiom. Kickapoo 

 is closely akin to both, but is a little way removed from them by 

 slight differences of vocabulary, intonation, and idiom. The dialect 

 taken up here is the Fox, which is spoken with as much purity as 

 Kickapoo. 



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