The Arapahoan languages are a subgroup of the Plains group of Algonquian languages: Nawathinehena, Arapaho, and Gros Ventre.
Nawathinehena and Gros Ventre are extinct and Arapaho is endangered.Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL InternationalGoddard 2001:74-76, 79
Besawunena, attested only from a word list collected by Kroeber, differs only slightly from Arapaho, but a few of its sound changes resemble those seen in Gros Ventre. It had speakers among the Northern Arapaho as recently as the late 1920s.
Nawathinehena is also attested only from a word list collected by Kroeber, and was the most divergent language of the group.
Another reported Arapahoan variety is the extinct Ha'anahawunena, but there is no documentation of it.
Classification The Glottolog database classifies the Arapahoan languages as follows:
Arapahoic Arapaho–Gros Ventre–BesawunenaAlthough Glottolog's name for this branch mentions Besawunena, it is not listed within either of the two langoids or in its own langoid. Arapaho Gros Ventre Nawathinehena
Notes
References Goddard, Ives (2001). "The Algonquian Languages of the Plains." In Plains, Part I, ed. Raymond J. DeMallie. Vol. 13 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 71–79. Marianne Mithun (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
External links "Arapaho" at Native-languages.org "Gros Ventre" at Native-languages.org