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Language of the Wampanoag
| The Wampanoag, and many of the
other native peoples in New England, spoke a language belonging to the
Algonquian language family. The language of the Wampanoag is most
closely related to those spoken by the Mohican and Pequot; the
neighboring Narragansett spoke a dialect of the same language. The
English language has borrowed many Algonquian words, including moose,
chipmunk, raccoon, opossum, skunk, squash, succotash, moccasin,
tomahawk, powwow, squaw, and wigwam.
One of the first Englishmen to make note of some of the Wampanoag vocabulary was Edward Winslow, who wrote Good News from New England in 1624. Winslow records a brief conversation he had with the Wampanoag leader, Massasoit: Keen Winsnow? [Art thou
Winslow?] Winslow also made notes on a number of other words and phrases, but did not compile any kind of a dictionary. In 1630, William Wood published a small dictionary of Wampanoag words in the back of his book, New England's Prospect. A small sampling of the words he included in his dictionary follows:
Learning the Wampanoag and Narragansett language became important to the English who settled in Massachusetts, because they intended to convert the Indians to Christianity: and to do so they needed a solid understanding of the language. One of the first to begin studying the language more thoroughly was Roger Williams. He wrote an entire 208-page book on the Narragansett language in 1643, entitled A Key Into the Language of America, in which he grouped words into various topical classifications, such as "Saluatations", "Eating and Entertainment", "House and Family", "Seasons of the Year", "The Weather", and numerous other categories. He included not just vocabulary, but grammar and cultural information as well. Two decades later, a missionary named John Eliot translated the Bible into the native language. The completed Bible was published in 1663 at Cambridge, Massachusetts--it was the first Bible to be printed in America. Here is a brief sample from the Bible, taken from Hebrews, Chapter 11: 1. Nano, wunnamptamoonk
wutahtoonkanuoo nish annoontamukish, uppahteanittamooonk nith matta
naumomugish. |