Catawban languages

Last updated
Catawban
Eastern Siouan
Geographic
distribution
The Carolinas
Linguistic classification Siouan
  • Catawban
Subdivisions
Language codes
Linguasphere 64-AB
Glottolog cata1285
Catawban langs.png
Pre-contact distribution of the Catawban languages

The Eastern Siouan branch consists of various historical languages spoken by Siouan peoples of the Appalachian Plateau and Piedmont regions of present-day Virginia and the Carolinas. These languages are sometimes collectively referred to as Catawban.

Eastern Siouan languages were historically spoken by the Catawba and Waccamaw people. They possibly represent a dialect continuum with Ohio Valley Siouan languages (Ofo language/Mosopelea, Biloxi language). [1] The Catawban family is a branch of the larger Siouan–Catawban language family.

Family division

Recognized members of the Eastern Siouan/Catawban family include:

  1. Catawba (†) – spoken by the Catawba people
  2. Woccon (†) – spoken by the Waccamaw people

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catawba language</span> Language spoken by the Catawba people

Catawba is one of two Eastern Siouan languages of the eastern US, which together with the Western Siouan languages formed the Siouan language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woccon language</span> Extinct Catawban language of North Carolina

Woccon was one of two Catawban languages of what is now the Eastern United States. Together with the Western Siouan languages, they formed the Siouan language family. It is attested only in a vocabulary of 143 words, printed in a 1709 compilation by English colonist John Lawson of Carolina. The Woccon people that Lawson encountered have been considered by scholars to have been a late subdivision of the Waccamaw.

The Sewee or "Islanders" were a Native American tribe that lived in present-day South Carolina in North America.

The Ohio Valley Siouan, or Southeastern Siouan, languages are a subfamily of the Western Siouan languages, far to the east and south of the Mississippi River. The group has Ofo and Biloxi, in the Lower Mississippi River valley, and Tutelo, historically spoken in Virginia, near the territory of the Catawban languages. All of the languages are now extinct.

References

  1. Ryan M. Kasak. 2016. "A distant genetic relationship between SiouanCatawban and Yuchi." In Catherine Rudin and Bryan J. Gordon (eds.), Advances in the study of siouan languages and linguistics, 5–39. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.17169/langsci.b94.120 https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/be94144a-3e4f-4913-9089-2bcfe5bd0879/611691.pdf