Abenaki language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abenaki
Wôbanakiôdwawôgan
Spoken in: Canada 
Region: Odanak, Centre-du-Québec, Quebec
Total speakers: 20 in 1991
Language family: Algic
 Algonquian
  Eastern Algonquian
   Abenaki
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: either:
aaq — Eastern Abenaki (extinct)
abe — Western Abenaki

Abenaki (also Abnaki) is the cover term for a complex of dialects of one of the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Modern Western Abenaki is currently spoken by a very small handful of Abenaki elders in Odanak, Quebec. Eastern Abenaki was until quite recently spoken by elders of the Penobscot tribe in eastern Maine, although it is now extinct[1]. Other dialects of Eastern Abenaki, such as Caniba and Aroosagunticook, now extinct, are documented in French-language materials from the colonial period.

Western and Eastern Abenaki share many similarities but are also different in striking ways, not only in vocabulary but also phonology.

[edit] References

  • Day, Gordon M. 1994a. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 1: Abenaki to English. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.
  • Day, Gordon M. 1994b. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 2: English to Abenaki. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.
  • Laurent, Joseph. 1884. New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues. Quebec: Joseph Laurent. Reprinted 2006: Vancouver: Global Language Press, ISBN 0-9738924-7-1