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Massachusett writing systems describes the historic and modern systems used for writing Massachusett, an indigenous Algonquian language of the Algic language family. At the time Europeans colonized the region, Massachusett was the primary language of several peoples of New England, including the Massachusett in the area roughly corresponding to Boston, Massachusetts, including much of the Metrowest and South Shore areas just to the west and south of the city; the Wampanoag, who still inhabit Cape Cod and the Islands, most of Plymouth and Bristol counties and south-eastern Rhode Island, including some of the small islands in Narragansett Bay; the Nauset, who may have rather been an isolated Wampanoag sub-group, inhabited the extreme ends of Cape Cod; the Coweset of northern Rhode Island; and the Pawtucket which covered most of northeastern Massachusetts and the lower tributaries of the Merrimack River and coast of New Hampshire, and the extreme southernmost point of Maine. Massachusett was also used as a common second language of peoples throughout New England and Long Island, particularly in a simplified pidgin form. [1]
The missionary John Eliot learned the language from bilingual translators and interpreters. In writing down the language, he used the Latin alphabet and English-style orthographical conventions. By the 1650s, Eliot had begun translating portions of the Bible, some published, that were distributed to the Indians, and the Indians that learned to read became active agents in the spread of literacy. Eliot used the dialect of the Massachusett, specifically the speech of Natick, in his Bible translation—the first Bible in any language printed in the Americas—and other printed works; dialect leveling ensued. Several other missionaries fluent in the language also offered their own missionary tracts and translations. By the 1670s, only twenty years after Eliot's first translations, one in three Indians were literate. The language faded as Indians faced increasing dispossession and assimilation pressures, with the last speakers dying off at the tail end of the nineteenth century.
In 1993, Jessie Little Doe Baird (née Fermino), co-founded the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project in an effort to bring the language back to her people. She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with linguists Kenneth Hale and later Norvin Richards. In her master's thesis, completed in 2000, Baird introduced a modernized orthography based on the colonial system but with a one-to-one correlation between sound and spelling. [2] In 2021, voters in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, approved installing bilingual English–Massachusetts street signs on First through Eighth Street (Nekône to Neeshwôsuktashe Taꝏmâôk, in Massachusetts) in East Cambridge. Installation of the signs will begin in 2024. [3] [ needs update ]
Prior to the introduction of literacy by the missionary Eliot, the Massachusett-speaking peoples were mainly an orally transmitted culture, with social taboos, mores, customs, legends, history, knowledge and traditions passed from the elders to the next generation through song, stories and discussion. With peoples from further away, speakers switched to a pidgin variety of Massachusett used across New England, but when spoken language failed, sign language was used. Little is known about the Eastern Woodlands Algonquian sign language other than its usage. Lenape were often recruited in the wars with the Indians of the west because of their ability to effectively communicate in silence. Even American Sign Language was likely influenced by the sign language of the Wampanoag of Martha's Vineyard, who interacted with a large population of English colonists who were deaf and signed. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language went extinct at the beginning of the twentieth century, but many of its users were influential in the development of ASL. [4] Little is known of it other than its existence, but it was likely similar in scope and usage such as extant Plains Indian Sign Language.
The most important form of symbolic communication that the Indians employed were dendroglyphs. These symbols carved into trees and logs served as boundary markers between tribes, to thank local spirits in the wake of a successful hunt and to record one's whereabouts. Moravian missionaries in the mid-eighteenth century noted that the Lenape of Pennsylvania and New Jersey would carve animals and etchings onto trees when they camped, and were able to pinpoint the tribe, region or village of symbols that they encountered. Similarly, the Abenaki peoples of northern New England used etchings on trees to mark paths or drew beaver huts and ponds to mark their trapping areas. The Mi'kmaq pictographic tradition was later converted into a true writing system with adjustments by French missionaries. These symbols were also painted. In 1813, residents found a tree carved into the shape of a woman and a child around Lake Winnipesaukee. Evidence for dendroglyphic picture writing in southern New England is lacking, as most of the trees were felled by the Federal Period, with current forests consisting of secondary growth after farms were abandoned for land in the Great Plains in the end of the nineteenth century. [5] The markings may have been similar to the wiigwaasabak of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) culture in scope and usage, able to record mnemonically songs related to ritual traditions, meetings between clans, maps and tribal identity. [6]
Pictographs carved into the rocks date back to the middle Archaic Period, ca. 6000-4000 BC up until a century after colonization. Most notorious are the etchings on Dighton Rock in the Taunton River but also several sites around Assawompset Pond. The figures depicted on Dighton Rock are similar to those of Bellows Falls, Vermont and other sites across New England. Most depictions include carved hands, the sun, the moon in various phases, people or spirits, anthropomorphic beings, various native animals, markings similar to the letters 'E,' 'M,' 'X,' and 'I,' slashes and crosses, circles that may represent planetary figures, trees, river courses and figures from shamanic tradition like giants, thunderbirds and horned serpents. During and after colonization, some depict Europeans and ships. Many are carved near water, and probably because these were sacred sites, commemorated historic agreements or to mark the land. [7]
Early adopters of literacy are known to have signed their names with animal symbols related to their tribe, clan or stature. For a century after English arrival, the Indians continued to mark rocks and trees, and one site in Massachusetts features a large boulder, with depictions of wetus from as far back as 3000 years old, to depictions of ships shortly after the period of English settlement began, and a few drawings and the Latin letters of the owner's name, where a Wampanoag family was present until the early twentieth century. [7] As late as the 1920s, Nipmuc women in central Massachusetts, a people closely connected culturally and linguistically with the Massachusett-speaking peoples, still made traditional baskets that were often decorated with woven or painted symbols representing the local landscape, such as the use of domed figures for homes (wetus), dots for people, parallel and diagonal lines to represent plots of land and other symbols whose meaning are lost. It is unknown whether or not the basketry traditions represent a continuation or have any connection to the earlier petro- and dendroglyph traditions. [8]
Colonial | Modern | Example | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Letter | Values | Name | Letter | Values | Name | Colonial | Modern | English |
A a | /a/, /aː/, /ã/, /ə/ | a | A a | /a/ | (a) | appin [9] | (apun) /apən/, 'bed' [10] | 'bed' |
 â 1 , 5 | /aː/ | (â) | ókéomꝏs [11] ágqushau- [12] pasuk | (âhkeeôm8s) /aːhkˈiːˌãmˌuːs/ [13] (âquhshô-) /aːkʷəhʃã-/ [14] (pâsuq) /paːsək/ | 'bee' 'to go underneath something' 'one' (of something) | |||
B b 2 | /b/ 4 , /p/ | bee | Bible -baug | (Bible) (-pâq) /paːk/ | 'Bible' 'pond' | |||
C c 2 | /k/, /s/, /ʃ/ | ſee (see) | consteppe mockis | (constable) (mahkus) /mahkəs/ | 'constable' 'shoe' | |||
Ch ch | /tʃ/, /tʲ/, /tjᵊ/ | chee | Ch ch | /tʃ/ | cha | chippanꝏonk [15] | (chapunuwôk) /tʃapənəwãk/ [16] | 'division' |
D d 2 | /d/ 4 , /t/ | dee | Deuteronomy 3 [17] adtôau [18] | (Deuteronomy) (atôwâw) /atãwaːw/ | 'Deuteronomy' 'he/she intends' (to buy) | |||
E e | /iː/, /ə/, /∅/, /jᵊ/ | e | E e | /ʲᵊ/ | (e) | wepitteash [19] wuttucke [20] nes [21] | (weeputeash) /wiːpətjᵊaʃ/ [22] (wuhtuhq) /wəhtəhk/ (nees) /niːs/ | 'his teeth' 'wood' |
Ee ee 1 | /iː/ | (ee) | nees [21] menan [23] | (nees) /niːs/ [24] (meenan) /miːnan/ [23] | 'two' (someone's) 'tongue' | |||
F f 3 | /f/ 4 , /p/ | ef | figſe (figse) | ('figs') | 'fig' | |||
G g 2 | /g/ 4 , /k/, /dʒ/ 4 , /ʒ/ 4 | gee | Galilee 3 [25] George ahtuquog | (Galilee) [25] (George) ahtuqak/ahtəkʷak/ | 'Galilee' 'George' 'deer' (pl) | |||
H h | /h/, /∅/ | *aitch (?) 6 | H h | /h/ | (ha) | howan [26] mohpeeak [27] | (hâwan) /hawan/ [28] (mapeeak) /mapiːak/ | 'who?' (someone's) 'hips' |
I i | /ə/, /iː/, /aːj/, /aj/ | i | 'Indiansog wompi | (Indiansak) (wôpây) /wãpaːj/ | 'Indians' (Native Americans) 'it is white' (color) | |||
J j 2 , 7 | /dʒ/ 4 , /ʒ/ 4 , /tʃ/, /tʲ/, /tjᵊ/ | ji | Jehovah manitt nawaj sonjum [29] | (Jehovah manut) (nawach) /nawatʃ/ (sôtyum) /sătʲəm/ | 'God Jehovah' 'I keep' 'chief', 'leader' | |||
K k | /k/ | ka | K k | /k/ | (ka) | ken [30] | (keen), /kiːn/ [31] | 'you' (singular) |
L l 3 | /l/ 4 , /n/ | el | leviathan 3 [32] | (Leviathan) [32] | 'Leviathan' | |||
M m | /m/, /~∅[/p/]/ | em | M m | /m/ | (ma) | mꝏse [33] wompoose [34] | (m8s), /muːs/, 'moose' [35] (wôp8s) /wãpuːs/ | 'moose' 'wompoose' (extinct Eastern elk) |
N n | /n/, /~∅/ | en | N n | /n/ | (na) | nen [36] usquond [37] | (neen), /niːn/ [31] (usqôt) /əskʷãt/ [38] | 'I' or 'me' 'door' |
O o | /a/, /aː/, /ã/, /ə/ | o | ohke [39] netop [40] weetauom- [41] | (ahkee) /ahkiː/ [42] (neetôp) /niːtãp/ [31] (weetawâm-) /wiːtawaːm/ [43] | 'my friend' 'earth' 'to marry' | |||
Ô ô 1 | /ã/ | (ô) | mꝏôi wasketomp | (m8ôây) /muːãaːj/ [44] (waskeetôp) /waskiːtãp/ [10] | 'it is deep' 'man' | |||
Ꝏ ꝏ 8 | /uː/, /wə/, /əw/, /ə/ | *ꝏ (?) 6 | 8 8 1 | /uː/ | (8) | askꝏk [45] hettꝏonk 'ꝏweemattog' | (ask8k) /askuːk/ [46] (hutuwôk) /hətəwãk/ (weematak) /wiːmatak/ | 'snake' 'speech' 'his/her brothers' |
P p | /p/ | pee | P p | /p/ | (pa) | pummee [47] | (pumee) /pəmiː/ [48] | 'fat' or 'grease' |
Q q | /kʷ/, /k/ 9 | kéuh | Q q | /kʷ/, /k/ 9 | (qa) | quaqueu [49] mosq mettugqosh | (qaqeew) /kʷakʷiːw/ [50] (masq) [50] (mehtuqash) /məhtəkʷaʃ/ | 'she/he runs' 'bear' 'trees' |
R r 3 | /r/ 4 , /n/ | ar | rabbi 3 [51] | (rabbi) [51] | 'rabbi' | |||
S s ſ | /s/, /ʃ/ | eſ (es) | S s | /s/ | (sa) | sépu [52] Maſſachuſett | (seepuw) /siːpəw [53] (Muhsachuw[ee]sut) | 'river' 'Massachusett' |
Sh sh 1 | /ʃ/ | sha | kꝏſh [54] | (k8sh) /kuːʃ/ [55] | 'your father' | |||
T t | /t/ | tee | T t | /t/ | (ta) | taquonck [56] | (taqôk) /taqãk/ [57] | 'autumn' |
Ty ty 1 | /tʲ/ | (tya) | keteau [58] wetu | (keetyâw) /kiːtʲaːw/ [58] (weetyuw) /wiːtʲəw/ | 'he/she recovers' 'wigwam' | |||
U u | /uː/, /a/, /ə/ | u | U u | /ə/ | (u) | ummissies [59] wetu | (umuhsees) /əməhsiːs/, 'his/her sister' [55] (weetyuw) | 'her/his sister' 'home' |
V v 3 , 7 | /v/ 4 , /p/ | vf (uf), úph | silver [60] | (silver) [60] | 'silver' | |||
W w | /w/ | wee | W w | /w/ | (wa) | weyaus [61] mauag [62] | (weeyâws) /wiːjaːws/ [63] (mawak) /mawak/ | 'meat' 'they cry' |
X x 2 | /ks/, /z/ 4 | eks | oxenog nux | (oxenak) (nukees) /nəkiːs/ | 'oxen' 'yes' | |||
Y y | /j/, /aj/, /aːj/, /iː/ | wy | Y y | /j/ | (ya) | yau [64] wopy | (yâw) /jaːw/, 'four' [65] (wôpây) /wãpaːj/ | 'four' 'it is white' |
Z z 2 | /z/ 4 , /s/ | zad | Zion [66] kez[i]heau [67] | (Zion) [66] (keesuheâw) /kiːsəhjᵊaːw/ [67] | 'Zion' 'she/he creates' | |||
Y (Þ) y (þ) 3 , 8 | /θ~ð/ 4 , /t/ | *thorn (?) 6 | Yurſday mony | (Thursday) (month) | 'Thursday' 'month' |
As Eliot listened to the Indians from the Praying Town of Natick, he wrote down words according to English orthography, which later developed into the colonial system in use from the 1650s until the mid-nineteenth century. Eliot used the entire Latin alphabet as used in English at the time to write the language.
Vowels could be marked with the acute accent ( ´ ) or the circumflex ( ˆ ) over the vowel. As a general rule, the acute accent served to mark stress or to lengthen a vowel, and the circumflex was used to mark nasal vowels. However, colonial ô was consistently used for /ã/, whereas â was used to mark nasal vowels as well as the long vowel /aː/. Both the Indians and the English missionaries used these accent marks sparingly, but when they were employed, usage was inconsistent and sometimes interchangeable.
The possible vowels with diacritics include acute accent Á, É, Í, Ó and Ú as well as circumflex accent Â, Ê, Î, Ô and Û. Only  and Ô are in common use, the other vowels with circumflexes are only rarely attested and generally used where, prescriptively, an acute accent would be used. [68] They do serve as disambiguation, for example, e could represent /ə/ such as in hettuog (hutuwôk) /hətəwãk/, 'speech,' /iː/ in ken (keen) /kiːn/, 'you' or the /j/ in wepitteash, but é always represents /iː/, as in wunnékin (wuneekun) /wəniːkən/, 'it is good.' At other times, the marks are confusing, as in the case of what would be (awasuw) /awasəw/ in the modern orthography, 'he warms himself,' which was written as auwossu, ouwassu, âwosu (suggesting /ãwasəw/) and auwósu (suggesting /awaːsəw/) in the colonial script. [69]
As Massachusett was first committed to writing just around 1650, based on an adaptation of the Latin alphabet and English orthography, it adopted aspects of Early Modern English conventions that disappeared in England by the late seventeenth century, but probably lingered a few generations later in the American colonies due to isolation. Since John Eliot wrote at this time, it was natural that orthographical conventions in use were transferred into Massachusett. It shares the following features:
The modern, phonetic system in use by the (Wôpanâak) Language Reclamation Project was first introduced by Baird in her master's thesis, An Introduction to Wampanoag Grammar, which she completed 2000 at MIT. Baird adjusted the writing system to better fit the phonology of the language. She found vocabulary and Massachusett radicals from the large corpus of missionary translations and personal letters and records of literate Indians that survives today—it is, in fact, the largest corpus of Native American written documents in North America. Pronunciation was pieced together with clues in the early writing, as well as through comparative linguistics work studying sound changes and other patterns of development from Proto-Algonquian and its various descendants.
The most striking feature of the new orthography is substitution of (8) for the double-o ligature ꝏ of the colonial period. This was done to ease inputting, rendering and printing and possibly because of its resemblance to the ou-ligature ȣ used in Algonquin and Abenaki Latin-script orthographies, although the Abenaki have also replaced ȣ with 8 for similar reasons. For example, historical mꝏs (Massachusett) and mȣs (Abenaki) and WLRP (m8s). Inspired by the colonial script, the modern orthography uses (â) and (ô) which resemble A and O with circumflexes, but modern usage restricts the former to represent /aː/ and the latter /ã/ whereas any vowel with a circumflex usually indicated nasality in the colonial script. These are considered letters in their own respective right, and not vowels with diacritics, in the modern orthographical system.
As the WLRP favors resurrecting old vocabulary, neologisms based on Massachusett radicals or use of forms from other extant languages over the use of English loan words, the new alphabet noticeably lacks the letters F, L, V and R, used only in loan words, as well as B, C, D, G, J, and Z that were previously used in both loans and native words as alternates to their respective voiced or unvoiced counterparts. [68] Although excluded from the alphabet, these letters are used to write proper names and some loans from English as all speakers and language learners and speakers today are native English speakers in a predominately English-speaking nation. X, which mainly appears in rare syncopated versions of native words and English loan words, now only appears in loan words, but was originally used in dialects that allowed for syncopation.
The Modern orthography lacks the confusing array of multiple, often contradictory, spellings, essentially representing a one-to-one correspondence between sound and spelling. It lacks gemination (letter doubling), silent E's, letter thorn, excessive English loan words and frustratingly variant spellings of the previous system.
A few exceptions to the general rule exist. (Q) as /kʷ/ before vowels and /k/ elsewhere, where (K) would be expected. The reason for this is because it prevents alternations between (Q) and (K) when medial and final radicals are appended, it would remain (Q) before certain ones and (K) elsewhere. For example, in Colonial spelling, the word for 'bear' was moſk or moſhk (but also moſhq and moſq), but when any endings, such as the plural or obviative endings are attached, Q was always used, often accompanied by U, e.g., masquog or mosquohwhereas the modern orthography avoids this alteration by using (Q) in all cases, with a simple rule to gleam its proper pronunciation, hence modern (masq) /mask/, 'bear,' (masqash), 'bears' and (masqah) 'bear' (obviative). [70]
(TE) and the letter (TY) produce essentially the same alveo-palatal /tʲ/ sound, although there is a slight difference in their respective origins which is distinguished in the orthography. The letter (TY) represents palatization of /k/, which occurs when /k/ is followed by /ə/, if that /ə/ is etymologically a weakened form of PEA *ī, which is in turn followed by either /hp/, /p/, /m/, /hk/ or /k/. Palatization is also triggered when /k/ is followed by /aː/, which derives from PEA *ē, and /əw/, which remains unchanged from PEA *əw. For example, (weekuw), 'it is his/her house,' vs. (weety8), 'house,' both derive from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiw[a·ʔmi] and (sôtyum) from Proto-Algonquian *sa·kima·wa. [58]
(TE) is actually (T) followed by (E), the latter is used to represent vowel affection. In Massachusett, this involves /j/-insertion before vowels that follow /iː/ or /ə/ but after /n/, /h/, /t/ or /ht/. [71] For example, (weeputeash) /wiːpətjᵊaʃ/, 'his teeth.' In both cases, the /ə/ descends etymologically from Proto-Eastern Algonquian /iː/. Although similar, infection often occurs as a replacement for a vowel that was once present. For instance, Massachusett (weeputeash) descends from Proto-Algonquian *wi·pitiari. (E) is used similarly to the Colonial orthography, where E was used in analogous positions. Although (E) is taken as /j/, most current speakers, and likely historical speakers, pronounce it as /jᵊ/ which is represented here.
The colonial orthography used the ligature letter ꝏ generally represented /uː/ but was also used in place of /wə/ and /əw/, whereas these sounds are represented in the modern orthography as (8), (wu) and (uw), respectively. In rapid speech, /uː/ and /əw/ can be confused, for example, Colonial hettꝏonk vs. Modern (hutuwôk) /hətəwãk/, 'speech.' [72]
Sound | Colonial | Modern | Colonial example | Modern example |
/tʃ/ | ch, dt, dj, j | (ch) | cheek[e]hikunk [73] | (cheekuheekôk) /tʃiːkəhiːkãk/, 'broom' [74] |
/h/ | h, hh | (h) | howan [26] | (hawân) /hawaːn/, 'who?' [28] |
/htʃ/ | hch, ch, tch | (hch) | mohchiyeu [75] | (mahchây8-) /mahtʃaːyuː/, 'to be room enough' or 'to be empty' [76] |
/hk/ | hk, k, kk | (hk) | ohke [77] | (ahkee) /ahkiː/, 'earth' or 'land' [42] |
/hm/ | m, mm, hm | (hm) | mꝏmꝏsquehe- [78] | (m8hm8hshquhe-) /muːhmuːhʃkʷəhə-/, 'to cause to become angry,' 'to provoke' or 'to cause to complain' [44] |
/hn/ | n, hn, nn | (hn) | nehnikikôsu [79] | (neehneekuhkôsu) /niːhniːkəhãsə-/, 'to be torn' [80] |
/hp/ | p, pp, hp | (hp) | appapit [81] | (ahpaput), /ahpapət/, 'place upon which he/she sits' [81] |
/hpw/ | hpw, hp, pp, p | (hpw) | supp[attau] [82] | (suhpwahtâ-) /səhpwahtaː-/, (of the eyes) 'to be shut' [83] |
/hkʷ/ | qu, hq, hqu, hgu, gu | (hq) | ahquon [84] | (uhqôn) /əhkʷãn/, 'hook' [22] |
/hs/ | ss, s, hs | (hs) | hassan [85] | (ahsun) /ahsən/, 'stone' [86] |
/hsw/ | hsw, sw, hs, hsu | (hsw) | chikkóswu- [87] | (chakahswu-) /tʃakahswə-/, 'to be burned' (by fire) [88] |
/hʃ/ | sh, hsh, hs | (hsh) | nush- [89] | (nuhsh-) /nəhʃ-/, 'to kill' [90] |
/hʃw/ | hshw, hsh, hshu, hsu | (hshw) | quoshwi- [91] | (qahshwee-) /kʷahʃwiː-/, 'to be ready' [92] |
/ht/ | ht, t, tt | (ht) | mehtauog [86] | (muhtawaq) /məhtawak/, 'ear' [86] |
/htjᵊ/ | the, hti, tt | (the) | kꝏchteau- [93] | (k8theaw-) [94] |
/htʲ/ | the, hti, tt | (hty) | kogkahtim-) [95] | (kakâhtyum-) /kakaːhtʲəm/, 'to advise' [96] |
/htw/ | ht, htw, tt, t | (htw) | nattin- [97] | (nahtwun-) /nahtwən/, 'to take' [98] |
/hw/ | hw, hu, hꝏ | (hw) | sahwuchuan [99] | (sahwuchuwan) /sahwətʃəwan/, 'to flow out' or 'to discharge' [88] |
/k/ | c, k, g, q, ck, kk', cg, kg | (k) | kꝏsh [100] | (k8sh) /kuːʃ/, 'your (sg.) father' [55] |
/m/ | m, mm | (m) | matta [101] | (mata) /mata/, 'no' or 'not' [102] |
/mw/ | mw, mu, mꝏ | (mw) | annimuog | (anumwak) /anəmwak/, 'dogs' [10] |
/n/ | n, nn | (n) | nén [103] | (neen) /niːn/, 'I' or 'me' [31] |
/nw/ | nw, nu | (nw) | nanweetu [104] | (nanweetyuw) /nanwiːtʲɘw/, 'she/he is common born,' 'he/she is a commoner' [105] |
/p/ | p, b, bb, bp, pb, pp | (p) | pasuk [18] | (pâsuq) /paːsək/, 'one' (unitary thing, not the number) [106] |
/pw/ | pw, po, pu | (pw) | chupwuttoonapwaog [107] | (chupwut8nâpuwôk), /tʃəpwətuːnaːpəwãk/, 'kiss' [108] |
/kʷ/ | q, qu, gu | (q) | quinni [109] | (qunây) /kʷənaːj/, 'it is long' [110] |
/s/ | s, z, ss, zz, sz | (s) | sepꝏ [111] | (seepuw) /siːpuː/ [53] |
/sk/ | sk, shk, sc, sg | (sk) | askꝏk [45] | (ask8k) /askuːk/, 'snake' [46] |
/skʷ/ | squ, sq, sgu, shqu, shq | (sq) | sonkisq[ua] [112] | (sôkusqâ) /sãkəskʷaː/, 'female chief,' 'queen' or 'wife of the chief' [113] [114] |
/sw/ | sw, su, s | (sw) | mꝏsusu- [11] | (m8swôsu-) /muːswãsə-/, 'to be shaven' [115] |
/ʃ/ | sh, s | (sh) | mehtugquosh | (muhtuqash) /məhtəkʷaʃ/, 'trees' |
/ʃk/ | sk, shk | (shk) | wuski, wushke | (wushkee) /wəʃkiː/, 'new' |
/ʃp/ | sp, shp | (shp) | nashpe [81] | (nashpee) /naʃpiː/, 'with' [81] |
/ʃkʷ/ | squ, sq, shq, shqu | (shq) | quoshquussausu- [116] | (qashqusôsu-) /kʷaʃkʷəsãsə-/, 'to be circumcised' [110] |
/ʃw/ | shw, sw | (sw) | nanashwe- [91] | (nanashwe-) /nanaʃwə/, 'to be prepared' [117] |
/t/ | t, tt, dt, d, dd | (t) | tamogkon [118] | (tamakun) /tamakən/, 'flood' [119] |
/tjᵊ/ | t[e], t[y], t[i] | (te) | wepitteash [120] | (weeputeash) /wiːpətjᵊaʃ/, 'his/her teeth' [22] |
/tw/ | tw, tu | (tw) | natwantam [121] | (natwântam) /natwaːntam/, 'to consider something' [80] |
/tʲ/ | te, ti, t[u], ty, ch, dj, j, jt, ge | (ty) | sachem [122] | (sôtyum) /sãtʲəm/, 'chief' [123] |
/w/ | w | (w) | wasketop [124] | (waskeetôp) /waskiːtãp/, 'man' [125] |
/j/ | y, i | (y) | yáw [126] | (yâw) /jaːw/, 'four' [65] |
Sound | Colonial | Modern | Colonial example | Modern example |
/a/ | a, au, o, u | (a) | ohtomp [127] | (ahtôp) /ahtãp/, 'bowstring' [128] |
/aw/ | au, aw | (aw) | kenau [129] | (keenaw/kinaw/, 'you' (pl.) [31] |
/awa/ | awa, aua, oa, owa, awo | (awa) | wadtauatonkqussuwonk [130] | (watawahtôqusuwôk) /watawahtãkʷəsəwãk/, 'voice' or 'sound' [131] |
/awã/ | awô, auwo, awá | (awô) | nadtauwompu [132] | (natawôpu-) /natawãpə-/, 'to look for' [133] |
/aja/ | aya, aia, ia | (aya) | piaquttum [134] | (payaquhtam/pajakʷəhtam/, 'to have authority over' [135] |
/ajuː/ | ayeu, aiꝏ | (ay8) | nayeum [136] | (nay8m) /naju/, 'to be ridden' [137] |
/ajã/ | iu, iô, aiâ | (ayô) | piusuhke [138] | (payôsuhkee-) /pajãsəhkiː-/, 'to be up against,' 'to be adjoining' [135] |
/ajə/ | ayu, ayeu, ayꝏ | (ayu) | ayeuwuttúonk [139] | (ayuwuhtyuwôk) /ajəwəhtʲəwãk/, 'fighting' [140] |
/aː/ | a, ai, á, â, o, ó, ah, oa | (â) | nuppaih [141] | (nupâh) /nəpaːh/, 'I wait' (for him/her) [141] |
/aːa/ | aa, oa, áa | (âa) | Wampanoag | (Wôpanâak) /wãpanaːak/, 'Wampanoag' (people) |
/aːaː/ | aa, oá, aá | (ââ) | waáp- [142] | (wââp-) /waːaːp-/, 'up' [143] |
/aːiː/ | ae, aé, aee | (âee) | ompuhmaquae [144] | (ôpuhmaqâee-) /ãpəhmakʷaːiː-/, 'to turn (oneself) around' [145] |
/aːã/ | aon, aô, aâ, ꝏwan | (âô) | quénꝏwantam- [146] | (qunuwâôtam-) /kʷənəwaːãtam-/, 'to deny' [110] |
/aːw/ | aw, au, âu, áu | (âw) | âu | (âw) /aːw/, 'he/she goes' [147] |
/aːj/ | i, y, ae, ie, ei | (ây) | ashkoshqui [148] | (ashkashqây) /aʃkaʃkʷaːj/, 'it is green' [14] |
/aːja/ | io, iu | (âya) | piuk [149] | (pâyaq) /paːjak/, 'ten' [135] |
/aːjə/ | aya, ia | (âyu) | mayateau [150] | (mayuhtyâ) /majəhtʲaː/, 'to make a path' [151] |
/jᵊa/ | ea | (ea) | wettohimunneash [152] | (wutâheemuneash) //wətaːhiːmənjᵊaʃ/, 'strawberries' [152] |
/jᵊaːã/ | eao[n], eô, eâ, eo[n], eo[m] | (eâô) | wunnompeuhkohteaonk [153] | (wunôpeuhkahteâôk) /wənãpjᵊəhkahtjᵊaːãk/, 'craftiness' [65] |
/jᵊã/ | eo[m], eo[n], ea[n], ea[m], eâ, eô | (eô) | ꝏsq[ui]heonk [154] | (wusqueeheôk) /wəskʷiːhjᵊãk/, 'her/his blood' [155] |
/jᵊə/ | eu, ei, ea, eo | (eu) | wunnompeuhkohteaonk [153] | (wunôpeuhkahteâôk) /wənãpjᵊəhkahtjᵊaːãk/, 'craftiness' [65] |
/jᵊəw/ | eꝏ, euw, uuw | (euw) | woshkenunneꝏ- [156] | (washkeenuneuw-) /waʃkiːnənjᵊəw/, 'to be young' [65] |
/iː/ | e, é, i | (ee) | nek [157] | (neek) /niːk/, 'my house' [147] |
/iːaː/ | ea, éa, ia | (eeâ) | ushpeatau [158] | (ushpeeâhtaw-) /əʃpiːaːhtaw/, 'to make raised' or 'to make go upward' [143] |
/iːə/ | eu, éa, éu | (eeu) | ohkeussó- [159] | (ahkeeuhshâ-) [160] |
/iːw/ | e, é, i | (ee) | quogquiu [49] | (qaqeew) /kʷakʷiːw/, 'he/she runs' [50] |
/iːwə/ | ewe, eewe, ewi | (eewu) | péwehe- [134] | (peewuhe-) /piːwəhə-/, 'to debase' or 'to make small' [137] |
/iːjə/ | eye, eye, eyu | (eeyu) | uttꝏcheyeuꝏ [161] | (ut8cheeyuwu-) /ətuːtʃiːjəwə-/, 'to be a time' or 'to be the (right) season' [143] |
/ã/ | á, â, ô, u, a[m], a[n], o[m], o[n] | (ô) | pohpuwonk [81] | (pôhpuwôk) /pãhpəwãk/, 'playing' or 'the act of fun play' [162] |
/ãa/ | ôa, áa, óa | (ôa) | wahteauatu-) [163] | (whatôatu-) /wahtãatə-/, 'to understand each other' [143] |
/ãaːj/ | ói, ôi, ôy | (ôây) | ꝏnóiꝏ [164] | (8nôâyuw) /nãaːjəw/, 'to be dark blue' [137] |
/ãiː/ | ôé, âe, ôi | (ôee) | waénuhkauw [165] | (wôeenuhkaw) /wãiːnəhkaw/, 'to surround' [151] |
/ãw/ | o, ó, ô, au | (ôw) | keekꝏoash [166] | (keekuwôwash) [38] |
/ãwa/ | ôa. ôo, âwa | (ôwa) | magkôatik [167] | (makôwatuk) /makãwatək/, 'that which is precious' [168] |
/ãwaː/ | ou, oa, awa | (ôwâ) | moui- [169] | (môwâwee-) /mãwaːwiː-/, 'to gather' [133] |
/uː/ | ꝏ, u, oo, ó, ú | (8) | mꝏs [33] | (m8s) /mus/, 'moose' [35] |
/uːaːã/ | ꝏwo, ꝏâu,oowo | (8âô) | unnontoowaog | (unôt8âôk/ənãttuːaːãk/, (a) 'people's language' [35] |
/uːə/ | ui, ꝏi | (8u) | santuit | (sôty8ut) /sãtuːət/, 'place of the sachem' [35] |
/uːw/ | ꝏ, oo, úw | (8w) | mꝏi | (m8wây) /muːwaːj/, 'it is black' [44] |
/uːwa/ | ua, ꝏwo, ꝏwa | (8wa) | 'penꝏwoht [170] | (peen8waht) /piːnuːwaht/, 'a stranger' [135] |
/ə/ | a, e, i, o, u | (u) | umishꝏn [171] | (umuhsh8n) /əməhʃuːn, 'his/her boat' [172] |
/əw/ | u, ꝏ, uw | (uw) | pittu [58] | (putyuw) /pətʲəw/, 'it is pitch' [58] |
/əwa/ | uwa, ua, ꝏa | (uwa) | kꝏashawog [173] | (k8shuwak) /kuːʃəwak/, 'your (pl.) fathers' [55] |
/əwiː/ | ui, ae, uwe, ꝏwe | (uwee) | ôsꝏwe- [174] | (ôsuwee-) /ãsəwiː/, 'to change' [175] |
/əwã/ | uwo, ꝏô, awô | (uwô) | upꝏnukkuwoh [176] | (up8nukuwôh) /əpuːnəkəwãh/, 'he/she (obv.) puts them' [177] |
/əj/ | e, ey, ei | (uy) | peantam [178] | (puyôhtam) /pəjãhtam/, 'to pray' [179] |
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek διακριτικός, from διακρίνω. The word diacritic is a noun, though it is sometimes used in an attributive sense, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritics, such as the acute ⟨ó⟩, grave ⟨ò⟩, and circumflex ⟨ô⟩, are often called accents. Diacritics may appear above or below a letter or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.
The circumflex is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin: circumflexus "bent around"—a translation of the Ancient Greek: περισπωμένη.
The Danish and Norwegian alphabet is the set of symbols, forming a variant of the Latin alphabet, used for writing the Danish and Norwegian languages. It has consisted of the following 29 letters since 1917 (Norwegian) and 1948 (Danish):
Filipinoorthography specifies the correct use of the writing system of the Filipino language, the national and co-official language of the Philippines.
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph. Examples are the characters ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨œ⟩ used in English and French, in which the letters ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the first ligature and the letters ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩ are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons, ⟨f⟩ and ⟨i⟩ are often merged to create ⟨fi⟩ ; the same is true of ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ to create ⟨st⟩. The common ampersand, ⟨&⟩, developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩ were combined.
The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four Wampanoag communities. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak (Wampanoag), and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.
English rarely uses diacritics, which are symbols indicating the modification of a letter's sound when spoken. Most of the affected words are in terms imported from other languages. The two dots accent, the grave accent, and the acute accent are the only diacritics native to Modern English, and their usage has tended to fall off except in certain publications and particular cases.
The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages, are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family. Munsee and Unami were spoken aboriginally by the Lenape people in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States, including western Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware.
French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language. It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100–1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Even in the late 17th century, with the publication of the first French dictionary by the Académie française, there were attempts to reform French orthography.
Ch is a digraph in the Latin script. It is treated as a letter of its own in the Chamorro, Old Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Igbo, Uzbek, Quechua, Ladino, Guarani, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Ukrainian Latynka, and Belarusian Łacinka alphabets. Formerly ch was also considered a separate letter for collation purposes in Modern Spanish, Vietnamese, and sometimes in Polish; now the digraph ch in these languages continues to be used, but it is considered as a sequence of letters and sorted as such.
Munsee is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of two Delaware languages. It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally by Lenape in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States, including western Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State, the northern third of New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania.
Ojibwe is an indigenous language of North America from the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is one of the largest Native American languages north of Mexico in terms of number of speakers and is characterized by a series of dialects, some of which differ significantly. The dialects of Ojibwe are spoken in Canada from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta and British Columbia, and in the United States from Michigan through Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as migrant groups in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Portuguese orthography is based on the Latin alphabet and makes use of the acute accent, the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, and the cedilla to denote stress, vowel height, nasalization, and other sound changes. The diaeresis was abolished by the last Orthography Agreement. Accented letters and digraphs are not counted as separate characters for collation purposes.
Norwegian orthography is the method of writing the Norwegian language, of which there are two written standards: Bokmål and Nynorsk. While Bokmål has for the most part derived its forms from the written Danish language and Danish-Norwegian speech, Nynorsk gets its word forms from Aasen's reconstructed "base dialect", which is intended to represent the distinctive dialectal forms. Both standards use a 29-letter variant of the Latin alphabet and the same orthographic principles.
The phonology of the Massachusett language was re-introduced to the Mashpee, Aquinnah, Herring Pond and Assonet tribes that participate in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, co-founded by Jessie Little Doe Baird in 1993. The phonology is based regular sound changes that took place in the development of Proto-Eastern Algonquian from Proto-Algonquian, as well as cues in the colonial orthography regarding pronunciation, as the writing system was based on English pronunciation and spelling conventions in use at the time, keeping in mind differences in late seventeenth century English versus today. Other resources included information from extant Algonquian languages with native speakers.
The Massachusett dialects, as well as all the Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA) languages, could be dialects of a common SNEA language just as Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible languages that essentially exist in a dialect continuum and three national standards. With the exception of Massachusett, which was adopted as the lingua franca of Christian Indian proselytes and survives in hundreds of manuscripts written by native speakers as well as several extensive missionary works and translations, most of the other SNEA languages are only known from fragmentary evidence, such as place names. Quinnipiac (Quiripey) is only attested in a rough translation of the Lord's Prayer and a bilingual catechism by the English missionary Abraham Pierson in 1658. Coweset is only attested in a handful of lexical items that bear clear dialectal variation after thorough linguistic review of Roger Williams' A Key into the Language of America and place names, but most of the languages are only known from local place names and passing mention of the Native peoples in local historical documents.
The grammar of the Massachusett language shares similarities with the grammars of related Algonquian languages. Nouns have gender based on animacy, based on the Massachusett world-view of what has spirit versus what does not. A body would be animate, but the parts of the body are inanimate. Nouns are also marked for obviation, with nouns subject to the topic marked apart from nouns less relevant to the discourse. Personal pronouns distinguish three persons, two numbers, inclusive and exclusive first-person plural, and proximate/obviative third-persons. Nouns are also marked as absentative, especially when referring to lost items or deceased persons.
Massachusett Pidgin or Massachusett Jargon was a contact pidgin or auxiliary language derived from the Massachusett language attested in the earliest colonial records up until the mid-eighteenth century. Little is known about the language, but it shared a much simplified grammatical system, with many features similar to the better attested Delaware Jargon spoken in the nearby Hudson and Delaware watersheds. It was mutually intelligible with the other Southern New England Algonquian languages.
Massachusett Pidgin English was an English-based contact language that had developed in early seventeenth century New England and Long Island as a medium of communication between the Native speakers of Algonquian languages and the English settlers that began to settle the coastal areas in 1620s. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English co-existed in Massachusett-speaking communities with their original dialects as well as Massachusett Pidgin, another contact language that was Massachusett-based. Unlike Massachusett Pidgin, which was confused with the Massachusett language by the English colonists, attestations of Massachusett Pidgin English are quite numerous. As few of the colonists were able to or willing to master either Massachusett or its Pidgin variety, those that traded and lived directly next to Indian villages communicated in Massachusett Pidgin English. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English supplanted the use of Massachusett Pidgin and likely even overtook the native language in community. In a process likely to decreolization, the speakers of Massachusett Pidgin English began to adjust their language to the English of their neighbors, and since the nineteenth century, all the descendants of the Massachusett-speaking peoples have been monolingual English speakers.