Book Reviews 115

but it also enriches the discipline of linguistic anthropology by applying the toolsof our trade to novel material, and by showing us all how fruitful collaborationacross disciplinary boundaries can be.

nikotwasik iskwahtem, paskihtepayih! Studies in Honour of H. C. Wolfart JohnD. Nichols and Arden C. Ogg, eds. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Algonquian and IroquoianLinguistics, 1996. 490 pp.

JOHN O'MEARALakehead University

The honoree of this volume is well known to students of Algonquian languagesfor his extensive work on Plains Cree since the 1960s. The motivation for this tributeis Wolfart's appointment in 1993 as University Distinguished Professor at theUniversity of Manitoba, where he has been a faculty member since 1969. Wolfarthas emphasized documentation of Plains Cree throughout his career, with a strongfocus on making available useful and usable information on Cree (Plains CreeMorphology, American Philosophical Society, 1973; H. C. Wolfart and J. Carroll, MeetCree, 2nd edition, University of Alberta Press, 1981). A key component of his workhas been the preparation of collections of Cree texts, often in collaboration with hiscolleague Freda Ahenakew, a native speaker of Cree (among others, FredaAhenakew and H. C. Wolfart, kohkominawak otacimowiniwa/Our Grandmothers' LivesAs Told in Their Own Words, Fifth House, 1992).

A preface by Wolfart's colleague William Wade gives an overview of Wolfart'scareer, followed by 22 papers by colleagues at the University of Manitoba andelsewhere. The title of the volume is a Cree phrase translatable as "Sixth door, goopen!" resulting from an amusing piece of crosslinguistic reinterpretation found ina Cree version of the story of Aladdin (for explication, see "1001 Nights: The Orientand the Far Northwest," H. C. Wolfart, Papers of the Twenty-First Algonquian Confer-ence, 388, Carleton University, 1990).

Many of the contributors share Wolfart's interest in text-based linguistics, par-ticularly in Algonquian languages. Darnell gives an overview and retrospective ofthe role of text collection in North American linguistic anthropology. A number ofthe contributors present annotated versions of texts from Algonquian languages ina variety of formats, generally with interlinear glossing and various types ofpresentations in an ethnopoetic vein. Dahlstrom presents a interlinear analysis of atraditional Fox story originally written in the Fox syllabary in the early part of thecentury; Drapeau analyzes a Montagnais text, showing how features of evidentialmodality are instantiated in secondhand narratives; Leman presents a Cheyenneversion of the widespread "Rolling Head" story; Rhodes and Buszard-Welcherprovide a retranscription of material from the Ottawa dialect of Ojibwe; R. Valentinepresents an analysis of a text from the Algonquin dialect of Ojibwe, with anextensive study of linguistic and stylistic features of the story; and L. Valentinepresents and analyzes a text from the Severn dialect of Ojibwe.

Other contributions dealing with the Algonquian language family include Bak-ker's investigation of what is known of fluency in Cree among Hudson's BayCompany fur traders during the period 1740-1800. Bakker concludes that some of

116 Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

the fur traders did learn Cree, however poorly, and that there was no Cree-basedpidgin language in existence at the time. Blain presents an analysis of syllablestructure in Minnesota Ojibwe, with data from an earlier study of that dialect (J.Nichols, Ojibwe Morphology, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1980). Cyranalyzes published Plains Cree textual data to argue that demonstrative pronounsfunction to indicate definiteness: "The more definite a noun phrase is, the morelikely it is to occur with a preposed demonstrative marker" (p. 78).

Hockett discusses the history of the analysis of several interrelated grammaticalconcepts in Algonquian languages, in particular "subject," "actor," and "passive."Difficulties arise in the analysis of verb forms treated as passives by Bloomfield inhis studies of Menominee and Ojibwe. Hockett modifies his original proposal totreat such forms as having an indefinite actor, now suggesting that they be treatedas "actorless" forms.

Nichols presents a comparative analysis of differing accounts of a historic battlebetween Ojibwe and Sioux groups in Minnesota in the 19th century, noting that theaccount given by 19th-century historian William Warren, himself partly of Ojibwedescent, is paralleled in both broad outline and significant detail in versionscollected over a century later by Nichols from his long-time Ojibwe collaboratorMaude Kegg. Nichols accounts for the differences that occur, showing that Warrenwas selective in his use of materials from an Ojibwe eyewitness to the battle in thathe excluded material that involved reference to supernatural events. Voorhis at-tempts to determine how much useful information can be obtained from FrankSpeck's prephonemic notes on three now extinct Eastern Algonquian languages:Mohegan, Penobscot, and Wawenock, and Catawba, a Siouan language. Speck'smaterials present many challenges of interpretation, but since they are among thefew sources for these languages, Voorhis's efforts considerably extend what weknow of them. Taylor discusses the term used in Arapaho dialects to refer toMexicans, proposing that it can be traced back to a French expression used in St.Louis during the Spanish period. Pentland presents a comparative study of Algon-quian terms for precipitation, extensively citing data from a broad range of lan-guages. Russell discusses obviation in Algonquian, assessing the applicability ofthe literary concept of "point of view" to obviation, concluding that the linguisticconcept of "topic" is more relevant to an understanding of obviation.

Outside the Algonquian orbit, but still in native North America, Cook analyzesphonological innovation in Chipewyan (Athabaskan). Hymes proposes a revisedpresentation of a previously published Arikara (Caddoan) text (Douglas Parks, ed.,Traditional Narratives of the Arikara Indians, vols. 1-4, University of Nebraska Press,1991). Further afield, Haiman presents two texts in Hua (Papua New Guinea). Egancompares "geomythology" in ancient Greece and North America, reviewing evi-dence that oral traditions in both places contain references to catastrophic volcaniceruptions. Fortier challenges modern literary theories, arguing that the validity oftheir anti-empirical leanings is contradicted by computationally based studies ofliterary texts which confirm a proposed distinction between different types offirst-person narrators.

The message to be taken away from this volume is a positive one, as many of theauthors show by the example of their contributions that there is a great deal ofworthwhile work being undertaken in the study of the indigenous languages of theAmericas. This volume is a valuable one for anyone interested in Algonquianlanguages and the analysis of texts in aboriginal languages more generally.