Loup language

Last updated
Loup
Pronunciation [lu]
Native to United States
Region Massachusetts, Connecticut
Ethnicity Nipmuck?
Extinct 18th century
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
xlo   Loup A
xlb   Loup B
xlo Loup A
  xlb Loup B
Glottolog loup1243   Loup A

Loup is an extinct Algonquian language, or possibly group of languages, spoken in colonial New England. Loup ('Wolf') was a French colonial ethnographic term, and usage was inconsistent. In modern literature, it refers to two varieties, Loup A and Loup B. [1]

Contents

Attestation

Loup A, which may be the language of the Nipmuck, is principally attested from a word list recorded from refugees by the St. Francis mission to the Abenaki in Quebec. The descendants of these refugees became speakers of Western Abenaki in the eighteenth century. Loup B refers to a second word list, which shows extensive dialectal variation. This may not be a distinct language, but just notes on the speech of various New England Algonquian refugees in French missions. [2]

Chaubunagungamaug lake sign, in Nipmuk and English Chaubunagungamaug lake sign.jpg
Chaubunagungamaug lake sign, in Nipmuk and English

Phonology

The phonology of Loup A (Nipmuck), reconstructed by Gustafson 2000:

Nipmuc Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal/
Postalveolar
Velar Glottal
plainpal.plainlab.
Nasal m n
Plosive p t k (kʷ)
Affricate
Fricative s h
Lateral l
Approximant w j
Vowels
Front Back
Close i , u
Mid e o ,
Open a , , ã

The vowel sounds likely have the same phonetic quality as other southern New England Algonquian languages. The short vowels /i o e a/ may represent the sounds as [ɪ], [ʊ], [ɛ,ə], and [ʌ], while the long vowels /iː/, /oː/, and /ã/ correspond to /i/, /o/, and /ã/. [3] [4]

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References

  1. Goddard, Ives (2012). "The 'Loup' Languages of Western Massachusetts: The Dialectal Diversity of Southern New England Algonquian". Papers of the 44th Algonquian Conference. SUNY Press: 104–138.
  2. Victor Golla, 2007. Atlas of the World's Languages
  3. Gustafson, Holly Suzanne (2000). A Grammar of the Nipmuck Language (PDF). Deparament of Linguistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  4. Costa, David J. (2007). The Dialectology of Southern New England Algonquian (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 August 2018.