The Eastern Algonquian languages are a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family; prior to European contact, the family consisted of around 17 languages, which streched from Newfoundland south into North Carolina. Eastern Algonquian languages descend from a putative proto-language, Proto-Eastern Algonquian. While Algonquian languages are often grouped into three large groups based on shared similarities (Plains Algonquian, Central Algonquian, and Eastern Algonquian), only Eastern Algonquian constitutes a separate genetic subgroup. Pre-contact distribution of Algonquian languages The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (the two Algic languages that are not Algonquian are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... The Algic languages are an indigenous language family of North America. ... Newfoundland (French: Terre-Neuve; Irish: Talamh an Éisc; Latin: Terra Nova) is a large island off the northeast coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 28th 139,509 km² 805 km 240 km 9. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ...

Family division

The languages are listed below along with dialects and subdialects. This classification follows Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999).

1. Eastern Abenaki (a.k.a. Abenaki or Abenaki-Penobscot) Abenaki is the cover term for a complex of dialects of one of the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. ...

• Penobscot (a.k.a. Old Town or Old Town Penobscot)
• Caniba
• Aroosagunticook
• Pigwacket

2. Western Abenaki (a.k.a. Abnaki, St. Francis, Abenaki, or Abenaki-Penobscot)
3. Etchemin (uncertain - See Note 1)
4. Lenape (a.k.a. Delaware) The Penobscot are a sovereign people indigenous to what is now the northeastern U.S. and Maritime Canada, particularly Maine. ... Abenaki couple The Abenaki (also Wabanaki), meaning people of the dawn, are a tribe of Native Americans/First Nations belonging to the Algonquian peoples of northeasternNorth America. ... Etchemin was a language of the Algonquian language family, spoken in early colonial times on the coast of Maine. ... Lenape (also called Delaware) is a language in the Algonquian language family spoken by the Lenape people. ...

• Munsee
• Northern Unami
• Southern Unami

5. Loup A (probably Nipmuck or Pocumtuck ??) (uncertain - See Note 1)
6. Loup B (uncertain - See Note 1)
7. Mahican (a.k.a. Mohican) Nipmuck emblem The Nipmuck are an aboriginal North American people, belonging to the family of Algonquian peoples, currently living in and around the Chaubunagungamaug Reservation of Webster, Massachusetts. ... The Mahicans (also Mohicans) are a Native American tribe who were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609. ...

• Stockbridge
• Moravian

18. Maliseet (a.k.a. Maliseet-Passamquoddy or Malecite-Passamquoddy) The Maliseet (also known as Wolastoqiyik and Malecite and in French also as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a Native American/First Nations people who inhabit the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, roughly overlapping the International Boundary between New...

• Maliseet (a.k.a. Malecite)
• Passamaquoddy

9. Massachusett (a.k.a. Natick) The Maliseet (also known as Wolastoqiyik and Malecite and in French also as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a Native American/First Nations people who inhabit the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, roughly overlapping the International Boundary between New... The Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. ... The Massachusett language was a Native American language, a member of the Algonquian language family. ...

• North Shore
• Natick
• Wampanoag
• Nauset
• Cowesit

10. Mi’kmaq (a.k.a. Micmac, Mi’kmag, or Mi’kmaw)
11. Mohegan-Pequot The Wampanoag (Wôpanâak in current orthography) are a Native American people. ... The Mikmaq language (also spelled Míkmaq, Migmaq, and Micmac) is an Eastern Algonquian language spoken by around 7,300 Mikmaq in Canada, and another 1,200 in United States, out of a total ethnic Mikmaq population of roughly 20,000. ...

• Mohegan
• Pequot
• Niantic
• Montauk

12. Nanticoke (a.k.a. Nanticoke-Conoy) The Mohegans are a Native American tribe that formerly inhabitated eastern Connecticut. ... The Pequot were a tribe or nation of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. ... Nanticoke is the name of two places in the United States: Nanticoke in New York Nanticoke in Pennsylvania This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

• Nanticoke
• Choptank
• Piscataway (a.k.a. Conoy)

13. Narragansett (a.k.a. Cowesit)
14. Pamlico (a.k.a. Carolina Algonquian, Pamtico, Pampticough, Christianna Algonquian)
15. Powhatan (a.k.a. Virginia Algonquian)
16. Quiripi-Naugatuck-Unquachog The Narragansett tribe, or more accurately Nahahiganseck Sovereign Nation, are a Native American tribe who controlled the area surrounding Narragansett Bay in present-day Rhode Island, and also portions of Connecticut, and eastern Massachusetts. ... The Pamlico were a Native American people of North Carolina, U.S.A.. They spoke Algonquian. ... The Powhatan (also spelled Powatan and Powhaten) were a very powerful confederacy of Native American tribes, speaking an Algonquian language, who lived in what is now Virginia at the time of the first English-Native encounters. ...

• Quiripi (a.k.a. Quinnipiak or Connecticut)
• Naugatuck
• Unquachog

17. Shinnecock (uncertain) Quiripi is the name of a Native American language of the Algonquin language family, specifically the Algonquin-Mosan branch. ... Naugatuck is a borough located in New Haven County, Connecticut. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ...

Notes

Etchemin and Loup were ethnographic terms used inconsistently by French colonists and missionaries. There is some debate whether distinct groups could ever have been identified with those names. Etchemin was a language of the Algonquian language family, spoken in early colonial times on the coast of Maine. ...

Etchemin is only known from a list of numbers from people living on the coast of Maine between the St. John and Kennebec Rivers recorded in 1609 by Marc Lescarbot. The name Etchemin has also been applied to other material from what many scholars of Algonquian ethnography and linguistics believe to be Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, or Eastern Abenaki. The Saint John River is a river, approximately 418 mi (673 km) long, located in the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. ... The course of the Kennebec River The Kennebec River is a river, 150 mi (240 km) long, in the state of Maine in the northeastern United States. ... Marc Lescarbot (c. ... The Maliseet (also known as Wolastoqiyik and Malecite and in French also as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a Native American/First Nations people who inhabit the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, roughly overlapping the International Boundary between New... The Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. ...

Some of the attested Loup vocabulary can be identified with different eastern Algonquian communities, including the Mahican, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and other groups. Loup A and Loup B refer to two vocabulary lists which cannot be conclusively identified with another known community. Loup A may well be the Nipmuck language of central Massachusetts or possibly the neighboring Pocumtuck. It is somewhat similar to Agawam. Loup B seems like a composite of different dialects. It is closest to Mahican and Western Abenaki. They also may represent unknown tribes or bands, or may have been interethnic trade pidgins of some kind. Documentary evidence for Loup B is very thin (14 pages); the documentary evidence for Loup A is much more extensive (124 pages), being documented in a manuscript dictionary from the French missionary period. See Uncertain/Extinct Algonquian Languages. The Mahicans (also Mohicans) are a Native American tribe who were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609. ... The Maliseet (also known as Wolastoqiyik and Malecite and in French also as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a Native American/First Nations people who inhabit the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, roughly overlapping the International Boundary between New... The Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. ... Nipmuck emblem The Nipmuck are an aboriginal North American people, belonging to the family of Algonquian peoples, currently living in and around the Chaubunagungamaug Reservation of Webster, Massachusetts. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 44th 10,555 mi²; 27,360 km² 183 mi; 295 km 113 mi; 182 km 13. ... Agawam is a city located in Hampden County, Massachusetts Agawam (grape) is a hybrid grape variety Camp Agawam is a boys summer camp in Raymond. ... The Mahicans (also Mohicans) are a Native American tribe who were living in and around the Hudson Valley at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1609. ...

See also

• Algonquian languages
• Proto-Algonquian language
• Algonquian peoples

Pre-contact distribution of Algonquian languages The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (the two Algic languages that are not Algonquian are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... Proto-Algonquian is the name given to the posited proto-language of the languages of the Algonquian family. ... Algonquian Indians are one of the most populous and widespread North American Native groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds, and hundreds of thousands who still identify with various Algonquian peoples. ...

External links

• Algonquian Family
• Algonquian languages

Bibilography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Goddard, Ives. 1994. The West-to-East Cline in Algonquian Dialectology. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the 25th Algonquian Conference 187-211. Ottawa: Carleton University.
• Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671106-9. Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed on Mar. 3, 2005.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.