Mobilian Trade Language
Announcing the release of Mobilian Trade Language (Mobilian Jargon) Phrasebook and Lexicon (ISBN 978-0-9995486-0-8), a beginner’s introduction to this North American indigenous pidgin. The author, linguistic anthropologist Dr. David Kaufman, specializes in indigenous language research, documentation, and revitalization, including producing dictionaries and teaching.
Mobilian Trade Language (aka Mobilian Jargon) is a Native American pidgin language that was spoken for purposes of trade and ritual in the American South until recently. As a pidgin, the language is streamlined and easy to learn. This is a phrasebook and bidirectional (MTL-English and English-MTL) lexicon that can help to reawaken this now dormant language by providing a handy lexical reference and common phrases. This book is useable by anyone, including by those who have little to no experience learning other languages.
The book is based largely on materials gathered by James Crawford and Emanuel Drechsel after being informed of living speakers in the 1970s by the indigenous basketmaker Claude Medford.
The book is available for purchase online in both paperback and ebook formats through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Cost is $11.99 for the paperback edition and $7.99 for the ebook edition. Phrases in the book will also be supplemented by free real-time audio pronunciation through the Mobilian Trade Language Facebook page, which is updated regularly.
Dr. David Kaufman
Dr. David Kaufman holds advanced degrees in linguistics and anthropology and has done extensive work in the preservation and revitalization of Native American languages. He is a polyglot as well as linguistic anthropologist and uses a cross-field (linguistic, ethnographic, cultural, and archaeological) approach in many of his writings. He has taught and tutored Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, and Russian. His primary foci are on comparative-historical Siouan, Romance, and Germanic linguistics, although his interests go far beyond this in the realms of language, history, anthropology, and other fields. He is from San Francisco but currently lives in Wisconsin.
Other Works by Dr. Kaufman
Biloxi-English Dictionary (forthcoming)
Atakapa Ishak Grammar and Dictionary (forthcoming) with Justin Southworth
