Algonquian languages
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Pre-contact distribution of Algonquian languages |
The
Algonquian (also
Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of
Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the
Algic language family (the two Algic languages that are not Algonquian are
Wiyot and
Yurok of northwestern
California). Speakers of Algonquian languages stretch from the east coast of
North America all the way to the
Rocky Mountains. The
proto-language from which all of the languages of the family descend,
Proto-Algonquian, was spoken at least 3,000 years ago, though there is still no scholarly consensus as to where this language was spoken.
The
Algonquian language family should be carefully distinguished from
Algonquin, which is only one language of the family.
This large family of 27 languages can be divided roughly into three major groupings â€" Central, Plains, and Eastern Algonquian. The languages are listed below along with dialects and subdialects. This classification follows Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999).
A.
Central and Plains: I. Plains:: 1.
Arapahoan :::*
Arapaho (also known as Arapahoe):::*
Besawunena:::*
Gros Ventre (also known as Atsina, Aáni, Ahahnelin, Ahe, A'aninin, A'ane, A'ananin):::*
Nawathinehena:::*
Haanahawunena:: 2.
Blackfoot (also known as Blackfeet):: 3.
Cheyenne:::*
Cheyenne:::*
Sutaio (also known as SoÊ"taaÊ"e): II. Central:: 4.
Cree (also known as Cree-Montagnais or Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi) :::
Eastern:::::*
East Cree (also known as James Bay Cree or Eastern Cree)::::*
Naskapi::::*
Montagnais (also known as Innu-aimun or Innu):::
Western:::::*
Atikamekw (also known as Attikamek, Attikamekw, Atikamek or Tête de Boule)::::*
Bungee (also known as Bungi, Bungie, Bungay, or Red River Dialect) (mixed language based on Plains Cree and Scottish Gaelic)::::*
Eastern Swampy & Moose Cree::::*
Western Swampy Cree::::*
Woods Cree::::*
Plains Cree::::*
Michif (also known as Mitchif, Métif, or Métchif) (mixed language based on Plains Cree and French):: 5.
Fox (also known as Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo or Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo) :::*
Fox (also known as Mesquakie or Meshkwahkihaki):::*
Sauk (also known as Sac and Fox):::*
Kickapoo:::*
Mascouten (unattested) :: 6.
Menominee (also known as Menomimi):: 7.
Miami-Illinois :::*
Miami:::*
Peoria:::*
Wea:::*
Illinois:: 8.
Ojibwa (also known as Ojibway, Ojibwe, Chippeway, Ojibwa-Potawatomi, or Ojibwa-Potawatomi-Ottawa):::*
Saulteaux:::*
Northwestern Ojibwa:::*
Southwestern Ojibwa:::*
Severn Ojibwa:::*
Central Ojibwa:::*
Ottawa (also known as Odawa):::*
Eastern Ojibwa:::*
Algonquin:: 9.
Potawatomi (also known as Ojibwa-Potawatomi):: 10.
ShawneeB.
Eastern: 11.
Eastern Abenaki (also known as Abenaki or Abenaki-Penobscot) ::*
Penobscot (also known as Old Town or Old Town Penobscot)::*
Caniba::*
Aroosagunticook::*
Pigwacket: 12.
Western Abenaki (also known as Abnaki, St. Francis, Abenaki, or Abenaki-Penobscot): 13.
Etchemin (uncertain - See Note 1): 14.
Lenape (also known as Delaware) ::*
Munsee::*
Northern Unami::*
Southern Unami: 15.
Loup A (probably Nipmuck)
(uncertain - See Note 1): 16.
Loup B (uncertain - See Note 1): 17.
Mahican (also known as Mohican)::*
Stockbridge::*
Moravian: 18.
Maliseet (also known as Maliseet-Passamquoddy or Malecite-Passamquoddy) ::*
Maliseet (also known as Malecite)::*
Passamaquoddy: 19.
Massachusett (also known as Natick) ::*
North Shore::*
Natick::*
Wampanoag::*
Nauset::*
Cowesit: 20.
Mi'kmaq (also known as Micmac, Mi'kmag, or Mi'kmaw): 21.
Mohegan-Pequot ::*
Mohegan::*
Pequot::*
Niantic::*
Montauk: 22.
Nanticoke (also known as Nanticoke-Conoy) ::*
Nanticoke::*
Choptank::*
Piscataway (also known as Conoy): 23.
Narragansett: 24.
Pamlico (also known as Carolina Algonquian, Pamtico, Pampticough, Christianna Algonquian): 25.
Powhatan (also known as Virginia Algonquian): 26.
Quiripi-Naugatuck-Unquachog ::*
Quiripi (also known as Quinnipiak or Connecticut)::*
Naugatuck::*
Unquachog: 27.
Shinnecock (uncertain)Notes
#
Etchemin and
Loup were ethnographic terms used inconsistently by French colonists and missionaries. There is some debate whether distinct groups could ever have been identified with those names.
Etchemin is only known from a list of numbers from people living between the St. John and Kennebec Rivers recorded in 1609 by Marc Lescarbot. The numbers in this list share features in common with different Algonquian languages from Massachusetts to New Brunswick, but as a set do not match any other known Algonquian language. Certain intriguiguing similarities between the Etchimin list and Wampanoag might suggest that languages closely related to Wampanoag might have been spoken as far north as the coast of Maine in the precontact period.
The name Etchemin has also been applied to other material from what many scholars of Algonquian ethnography and linguistics believe to be Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, or Eastern Abenaki.
Some of the attested Loup vocabulary can be identified with different eastern Algonquian communities, including the Mahican, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and other groups. Loup A and Loup B refer to two vocabulary lists which cannot be conclusively identified with another known community. Loup A is most likely Nipmuck, and is also somewhat similar to the handful of words attested for Agawam. Loup B seems like a composite of different dialects. It is closest to Mahican and Western Abenaki. They also may represent unknown tribes or bands, or may have been interethnic trade pidgins of some kind. Documentary evidence for Loup B is very thin (14 pages); the documentary evidence for Loup A is much more extensive (124 pages), being documented in a manuscript dictionary from the French missionary period. See Uncertain/Extinct Algonquian Languages.
It is important to note that only
Eastern Algonquian is a true genetic subgrouping. The
Plains Algonquian and the
Central Algonquian groups are not genetic groupings but rather areal groupings. This means that Blackfoot is no more closely related to Cheyenne than it is to Menominee. However, these areal groups often do have certain shared linguistic features, but the features in question are attributed to
language contact. While Paul Proulx has recently argued that this traditional view is incorrect, and that
Central Algonquian (in which he includes the Plains Algonquian languages) is a genetic subgroup, with Eastern Algonquian now being seen as several different subgroups, this point of view has failed to gain acceptance by any other specialists in the Algonquian languages.
Instead, the commonly-accepted subgrouping scheme is that proposed by
Ives Goddard (1994); the essence of this proposal is that Proto-Algonquian originated to the west, perhaps in the Plateau region of Idaho and Oregon, and then moved east, dropping off subgroups as it went along. By this scenario, Blackfoot was the first language to branch off, which coincides well with its position as the most divergent language of Algonquian. In west-to-east order, the subsequent branchings were Arapaho-Gros Ventre, Cree-Montagnais, Menominee, Cheyenne, then the core Great Lakes languages (Ojibwe-Potawatomi, Shawnee, Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo, and Miami-Illinois), then finally, Proto-Eastern Algonquian. This historical reconstruction accords best with the observed levels of divergence within the family, whereby the most divergent languages are found futhest west (since they constitute the earliest branchings), and the shallowest subgroupings are found furthest to the east (Eastern Algonquian, and arguably Core Central). Goddard also points out that there is clear evidence for pre-historical contact between Eastern Algonquian and Cree-Montagnais as well as between Cheyenne and Arapaho-Gros Ventre, and that there has long been especially extensive back-and-forth influence between Cree and Ojibwe.
Algonquian is sometimes said to have included the extinct
Beothuk language of
Newfoundland, although evidence is scarce and poorly recorded, and the claim is mainly based on geographic proximity.
Etchimin and the pre-colonial language of the
Lumbees may also have been Algonquian languages, but in both cases documentary evidence is at best very weak. There is no documentary evidence whatsoever of an aboriginal Lumbee language.
The Algonquian language family is renowned for its complex
polysynthetic morphology and sophisticated
verb system. Statements that take many words to say in
English can be expressed with a single "word". Ex: (
Menominee)
enae:ni:hae:w "He is heard by higher powers" or (
Plains Cree)
kÄstÄhikoyahk "it frightens us". Languages in this family typically mark at least two distinct third persons, so that speakers can keep track of central characters in narrative. These languages have been famously studied in the structuralist tradition by
Leonard Bloomfield and
Edward Sapir among others. Many of these languages are extremely endangered today, while others have died completely.
For information on the peoples speaking Algonquian languages, see
Algonquian peoples.
See the lists of words in the Algonquian languages and the list of words of Algonquian origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project.Loan wordsMain article: List of English words of Algonquian origin
Because Algonquian languages were some of the first that Europeans came in contact with in North America, the language family has given many words to
English. Many eastern and midwestern
U.S. states have names of Algonquian origin (
Massachusetts,
Connecticut,
Illinois,
Michigan,
Wisconsin, etc.), as do many cities:
Milwaukee,
Chicago, et al. The capital of
Canada is named after an Algonquian nation - the
Odawa. For a more detailed treatment of geographical names in three Algonquian languages see the external link to the book by Trumbull.
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997).
American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
* Goddard, Ives. 1994. The West-to-East Cline in Algonquian Dialectology. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the 25th Algonquian Conference 187-211. Ottawa: Carleton University.
* Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000).
Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671106-9. Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed on Mar. 3, 2005.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999).
The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
* Proulx, Paul (2003). "The Evidence on Algonquian Genetic Grouping: A Matter of Relative Chronology."
Anthropological Linguistics 45:201-25.
*
Algonquian Family*
Algonquin First Nation, Language Resource*
Free ebook of Composition of Geographical Names from the Algonkin Languages by J. Hammond Trumbull at
Project Gutenberg
