Abenaki language
| Abenaki | |
|---|---|
| Wôbanakiôdwawôgan | |
| Spoken in | Canada |
| Region | Odanak, Centre-du-Québec, Quebec |
| Ethnicity | Abenaki |
| Native speakers | 20 (1991) |
| Language family |
Algic
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: aaq – Eastern Abenaki (extinct) abe – Western Abenaki |
The Abenaki (also Abnaki) language is a dialect continuum within the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine. Modern Western Abenaki is spoken by a small handful of Abenaki elders in Odanak, Quebec.
Eastern Abenaki was spoken by elders of the Penobscot tribe in eastern Maine until the 1990s. It is now considered 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 they are also different in striking ways. They differ not only in vocabulary but also phonology.
[edit] Sample vocabulary
bazegw = one
niz = two
nas = three
yaw = four
n[ô]lan * = five
ngued[ô]z * = six
tôbawôz = seven
nsôzek = eight
noliwi = nine
mdala = ten
sanôba = man
p[e]hanem * = woman
miguen = feather
* letters in square brackets often lost in vowel syncope.
The English word skunk, attested in New England in the 1630s, is probably borrowed from the Abenaki seganku[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Ethnologue http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aaq
- ^ A concise etymological dictionary of the English language, Walter William Skeat, Harper & Brothers, 1882, p. 440
- 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.
- Harvey, Chris. "Abenaki". Language Geek. http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/abenaki/abenaki.html. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- Laurent, Joseph. 1884. New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues. Quebec: Joseph Laurent. Reprinted 2006: Vancouver: Global Language Press, ISBN 0-9738924-7-1
- "Penobscot-Abenaki Pronunciation and Spelling Guide". Native Languages of the Americas. http://www.native-languages.org/abna_guide.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- http://www.native-languages.org/abenaki.htm
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