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Powhatan or Virginia Algonquian was an
Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
subgroup of the
Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...
. It was formerly spoken by the Powhatan people of tidewater Virginia. Following 1970s linguistic research by Frank Thomas Siebert, Jr., some of the language has been reconstructed with assistance from better-documented Algonquian languages, and attempts are being made to revive it. The sole documentary evidence for this language is two short wordlists recorded around the time of first European contact. William Strachey recorded about 500 words and Captain John Smith recorded only about 50 words. Smith also reported the existence of a pidgin form of Powhatan, but virtually nothing is known of it. Strachey's material was collected sometime between 1610 and 1611, and probably written up from his notes in 1612 and 1613, after he had returned to England. It was never published in his lifetime, although he made a second copy in 1618. The second copy was published in 1849, and the first in 1955. Smith's material was collected between 1607 and 1609 and published in 1612 and again in 1624. There is no indication of the location where he collected his material. Like many Algonquian languages, Powhatan did not have a writing system, so all that is left are the writings from the 17th century and the piecing together that can be done using related Algonquian languages. Although the language has become extinct, some of the tribes that were part of the Powhatan Chiefdom still remain close to their lands. These tribes include Upper Mattaponi, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Chickahominy, Pamunkey and Patawomeck, all of whom are either recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia or the federal government. There is also the Powhatan Renape Nation (formerly located on the Rankokus Indian Reservation in Burlington, New Jersey) that is working to reclaim their culture and educate the public.


Family and origin

Powhatan is an Algic language. It is closely related to Unami,
Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...
, Nanticoke,
Massachusett The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hil ...
, and other
Eastern Algonquian languages The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and ad ...
, is more distantly related to
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
,
Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
,
Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
, Blackfoot, and other
Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...
, and is most distantly related to
Wiyot The Wiyot (Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-’at xee-she or Wee-yan’ Xee-she’, Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne - "Mad River People“, Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a sma ...
and Yurok.


Historical phonological changes

Based on his work to reconstruct Powhatan, Siebert was able to compare the changes that the language might have made compared to Proto-Algonquian and Proto-Eastern Algonquian. Here are three of the most basic changes his research pinpointed: *All syllabic phonemes are the same in between Proto-Eastern Algonquian and Powhatan and the only change between those two and Proto-Algonquian is that word initial /ɛ/ became an /a/ in Powhatan and Proto-Eastern Algonquian. Ex: PA /ɛšpeːwi/ 'it is high' → ''aspēw'' �sˈpeːw *Word final vowels are deleted if they are preceded by a consonant between Proto-Algonquian and Powhatan. Ex: PA /myeːneθki/ 'earthwork' → ''mēnesk'' �meːnesk *Powhatan drops the difference between /s/ and /š/ that is found in Proto-Algonquian. Similarly, PA /l/ becomes a /ɾ/ in Powhatan, unless it in a word final position of a particle or inflectional morphemes, where it is deleted. Furthermore PA /θ/ becomes a /t/. Ex: PA /šiːˀšiːpa/ 'duck' → ''siyssiyp'' �siːssiːp; PA /leːkawi/ 'sand' → ''rēkaw'' �ɾeːkʌw; PA /aθemwehša/ 'little dog' → ''atemoss'' �ˈtɛmʊss


History


Pre-colonial history

The Powhatan language formed from a split from other Eastern Algonquian languages, and southward moving groups replaced earlier cultures in the area as the language became more distinct. There is no certainty as to whether or not
Carolina Algonquian Carolina may refer to: Geography * The Carolinas, the U.S. states of North and South Carolina ** North Carolina, a U.S. state ** South Carolina, a U.S. state * Province of Carolina, a British province until 1712 * Carolina, Alabama, a town in t ...
was a distinct language from Powhatan, as ultimately Carolina Algonquian Groups such as the
Chowanoke The Chowanoke, also spelled Chowanoc, are an Algonquian-language Native American tribe who historically inhabited the coastal area of the Upper South of the United States. At the time of the first English contacts in 1585 and 1586, they were th ...
, Croatan, and Machapunga are ethnically branches of the Powhatan groups of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. Powhatan was likely the dominant language of what is now eastern Virginia, and was used in the Powhatan Chiefdom.


European contact

The first Europeans to encounter the Powhatan were the Spanish. They gave this region the name Ajacán, and they may have sailed up the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
; however, Spanish colonization ultimately failed in this area. English colonists arrived in 1607 with Captain John Smith, and established the settlement of Jamestown. Smith recorded only about 50 words in Powhatan, but William Strachey, a writer and fellow colonist, managed to record about 500 words. Because at this time Powhatan was still the dominant language, and because during the early years the English colonists were dependent on the Powhatan for food, the colonists had to learn the newly encountered language. The English language started borrowing many words from Powhatan; the language has been credited with being the source of more English loans than any other indigenous language. Most such words were likely borrowed very early, probably before conflict arose between the Powhatan and the colonists in 1622. Among these words are: ''chinquapin'' (''
Castanea pumila ''Castanea pumila'', commonly known as the Allegheny chinquapin, American chinquapin (from the Powhatan) or dwarf chestnut, is a species of chestnut native to the southeastern United States. The native range is from Maryland and extreme souther ...
''), ''
chum Chum may refer to: Broadcasting * CHUM Limited, a defunct Canadian media company * CHUM Radio, now Bell Media Radio, a Canadian radio broadcasting company * CHUM (AM), a Toronto radio station * CHUM-FM, a Toronto radio station * CHUM Chart, ...
'' (as in ''
chumming Chumming (American English from Powhatan) is the blue water fishing practice of throwing meat-based groundbait called "chum" into the water in order to lure various marine animals (usually large game fish) to a designated fishing ground, so the ta ...
''), '' hickory'', '' hominy,'' ''
matchcoat A matchcoat or match coat is an outer garment consisting of a length of coarse woolen cloth (stroud), usually about long, worn wrapped around the upper part of the body like a toga. Historically, they have been worn primarily by the Indigenous p ...
,'' ''
moccasin A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional pane ...
,'' '' muskrat,'' '' opossum,'' '' persimmon,'' ''
pokeweed ''Phytolacca americana'', also known as American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke sallet, dragonberries, and inkberry, is a poisonous, herbaceous perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae. This pokeweed grows . It has simple leaves on green ...
'', ''pone'' (as in '' corn pone''), '' raccoon,'' '' terrapin,'' '' tomahawk,'' and '' wicopy.'' As English colonists continued to expand onto Powhatan territory, the reverse began to happen: Powhatan people now had to learn English. Spoken Powhatan language has declined since 1790.


Modern era

In recent decades there has been an interest in reviving the lost language, especially by the descendants of the Powhatan Confederacy. In 1975, Frank Siebert, a linguist specializing in Algonquian languages, published a book-length study claiming the "reconstitution" of the phonology of the language. For the film '' The New World'' (2005), which tells the story of the English colonization of Virginia and encounter with the Powhatan, Blair Rudes made a tentative reconstruction of the language "as it might have been." A specialist in the Indigenous languages of North Carolina and Virginia, he used the Strachey and Smith wordlists, as well as the vocabularies and grammars of other Algonquian languages and the
sound correspondence In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
s that appear to obtain between them and Powhatan. More specifically, he used a Bible translated into
Massachusett The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hil ...
to piece together grammar and Proto-Algonquian to compare the words in Smith and Strachey's records. Linguists with the College of William and Mary are working with the Patawomeck tribe to recover the language and have made strides in doing so. The Patawomeck tribe offers classes in Stafford, Virginia, on the language.


Phonology


Consonants

This table is based on Frank T. Siebert's reconstruction of the Powhatan language. He used the notes of John Smith but relied primarily on the work of William Strachey recorded between 1610 and 1611. Siebert also used his knowledge of the patterns of other Algonquian languages in determining the meaning of Strachey's notes. This table provides the practical symbols along with their
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners A ...
equivalents, in brackets.


Vowels

Siebert reconstructs the following vowels for Powhatan (with assumed IPA equivalents in brackets):


Syllable structure

Siebert does not specifically go over the structure of syllables, but using the lexicon and examples that he does provide, (C)V(ː)(C) pattern can be determined. Clusters within words are limited to two consonants, CVCCVC.


Stress

The Powhatan language uses syncope to determine the stressed syllable in words, more specifically the syncopation of weak vowels, /a/ and /e/. Syllable weight is determined based on whether or not the first syllable contains a weak vowel. If it does, then even numbered syllables are heavy and odd numbered syllables are light. For example, /nepass/, which means sun, would be pronounced /ne, PASS/. If the word starts with a strong vowel, then it is the opposite, with the even numbered syllables being light and the odd numbered syllables being heavy. For example, /wiːngan/, which means good, would be pronounced /WIːN, gan/. There are two kinds of syncope: major and minor. Major syncopation happens in morphemes that are three or more syllables in the middle of the word. This especially happens in light syllables ending in /s/ or /h/. Some examples of this are in the words spoon and broom. "Spoon" would be pronounced /eː , MEH , koːn/, but with major syncopation, it is pronounced /eːm , KOːN/. For "broom", it would pronounced /ČIː , keh , KAHI , kan/, but with the syncopation, it ends up /ČIːK, kahi , KAN/. Notice that the last example is a prime example of the light syllable that ends in /h/ being syncopated. Minor syncopation tends to be optionally and only seen is specific dialects. Syllable weight is not a factor and instead it depends on if the word begins with /m/ or /n/ or ends with an /s/ or a cluster including /s/ such as /sk/. An example of this is in the word for five which would be pronounced /pa , REːN , eskw / and is instead pronounced as /pa , REːN, esk/ or /pa, REːN, sk/.


Historical phonological changes

Based on his work to reconstruct Powhatan, Siebert was able to compare the changes that the language might have made compared to Proto-Algonquian and Proto-Eastern Algonquian. Here are three of the most basic changes his research pinpointed: All syllabic phonemes are the same in between Proto-Eastern Algonquian and Powhatan and the only change between those two and Proto-Algonquian is that word initial /ɛ/ became an /a/ in Powhatan and Proto-Eastern Algonquian. Ex: PA /ɛšpeːwi/ 'it is high' → /aspeːw/ Word final vowels are deleted if they are preceded by a consonant between Proto-Algonquian and Powhatan. Ex: PA /myeːneθki/ 'earthwork' → /meːnesk/ Powhatan drops the difference between /s/ and /š/ that is found in Proto-Algonquian. Similarly, PA /l/ becomes a /r/ in Powhatan, unless it in a word final position of a particle or inflectional morphemes, where it is deleted. Furthermore PA /θ/ becomes a /t/. Ex: PA /šiːˀšiːpa/ 'duck' → /siːssiːp/ ; PA /leːkawi/ 'sand' → /reːkaw/ ; PA /aθemwehša/ 'little dog' → /atemoss/


Grammar


Nouns

In Powhatan, nouns take
inflective In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
affixes depending on their class. There seems affixes only added to 3rd person noun. These nouns are not only categorized as
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...
and plural, but also
animate Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
and inanimate. For the animate group there are the proximate and
obviative Within linguistics, obviative (abbreviated ) third person is a grammatical-person clusivity marking that distinguishes a non- salient (obviative) third-person referent from a more salient (proximate) third-person referent in a given discourse co ...
classes; the proximate class is for nouns considered more salient, and the obviative class is for nouns considered less salient. This is quite common for Algonquian languages, and strongly reflects the traditional world view of Powhatan groups, as well as other Algonquian-speaking groups.


Diminutives

Powhatan has 6 affixes for naming items diminutively. These affixes function by a rule of internal sandhi. The last ending in the list is the most commonly seen diminutive. The following are the affixes themselves: * -ins ex: "little stick" * -ēns ex: "small cord" * -ēs or -īs ex: "small coal" * -iss ex: "old woman" * -ēss ex: "muskrat" * -ess ex: "ant"


Verbs

There are 3 types of verb affixes of the Powhatan language, all of which are inflective. Powhatan is a language that follows an
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative l ...
pattern. Although it might have lost some of its strict rules, there is a clear pattern where the indication of person is pretty consistent regardless of the type or class of verbs.


Animate intransitive independent verbs

The chart below presents the affixes taken by animate intransitive verbs. The first and second singular persons usually take the ''ne-''/ ''ke-'' prefix, unless the verb ends with a long ''ā'', in which case it takes a ''ne-m''/''ke-m''
circumfix A circumfix (abbreviated ) (also confix or ambifix) is an affix which has two parts, one placed at the start of a word, and the other at the end. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, attached at the ...
. In the plural, 1st person has 2 forms, 'we' inclusive and 'we' exclusive.


Transitive inanimate independent indicative verbs

The second group of verbs is for inanimate transitive verbs. These verbs only have singular subjects, but that does not prevent them from having a singular and plural form. These verbs also fall into 3 different classes of their own and well as two negative forms.


Transitive animate verbs

This class of verb is used to express actions done to other people and things. Notice the hierarchy that occurs, especially in the 1st singular form with a 2nd singular object. When referring an I to you relationship, like ''kowamānes'' "I love you," a variant of the 2nd person prefix, ''ko-'' is used instead of the 1st person ''ne-'' prefix even though "I" is the subject.


Syntax

Possibly due to the fact that Siebert's research was more focused on reconstructing Powhatan for the purpose of comparing it to Proto-Algonquian or because the notes of Smith and Strachey do not lend themselves to analyzing it, syntax is not discussed in Siebert's research nor are there any examples of what sentences might have been like. However, by looking at other languages in the same family as Powhatan, some basic patterns can be established: It has been established that Powhatan is considered an agglutinative language, meaning that morphemes can be added on to words to communicate more descriptive meanings. This happens especially in verbs, allowing one long word to basically represent a whole sentence. This almost eliminates the importance of word order. Other languages in the Algonquian family are marked with
obviative Within linguistics, obviative (abbreviated ) third person is a grammatical-person clusivity marking that distinguishes a non- salient (obviative) third-person referent from a more salient (proximate) third-person referent in a given discourse co ...
/ proximate endings, which clarify the subjects of focus, especially in telling stories. There is not enough data recorded to put together a definite list of the imperatives, but Strachey documents imperatives being used. Therefore, using those lists and what is known about Proto-Eastern Algonquian, a tentative list can be created. Some examples of these imperatives are as follows: ''pasekoiys'' "arise you!" ; ''piāk'' "come you all!" ; ''ontenass'' "you take it away from there!" ; ''miytiys'' "you eat it!" ; ''miytiyk'' "you all eat it!" ; * presumed ending Finally, as explained in the transitive animate verbs section, there are circumstances of animacy hierarchy with direct objects in Powhatan. Instead of the hierarchy going 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person, there is a pattern of 2nd person, 1st person, 3rd person. For example, to say "I strike him" it would be ''nepakamāw'', where the ''ne-'' prefix for 1st person is first and the ''-āw'' for 3rd person is at the end. However to say something like " I feed you", it would be ''keassakmes'' with the ''ke-'' prefix for 2nd person at the beginning and a different ''-es'' suffix for 1st person at the end. This might be a result of a practice of respect for others before oneself. "It is one of the few languages that give greater importance to the listener than the speaker," Dr. Blair Rudes, the linguist that worked on reconstructing the language for the movie The New World, remarked in an interview.


Dialect variation

Siebert's 1975 study also examined evidence for dialect variation. He found insufficient justification for assigning any apparent dialects to particular areas. Strachey's material reflects considerable lexical variation and minor phonological variation, suggesting the existence of dialect differentiation. A speculative connection to the Chickahominy and Pamunkey Virginia Algonquian tribes has been suggested, but there is no evidence to support this link. The table below gives a sample of words reflecting lexical variation. Each word is given as written by Smith or Strachey, followed by a proposed phonemic representation.


See also

*
Carolina Algonquian Carolina may refer to: Geography * The Carolinas, the U.S. states of North and South Carolina ** North Carolina, a U.S. state ** South Carolina, a U.S. state * Province of Carolina, a British province until 1712 * Carolina, Alabama, a town in t ...
* List of English words of Algonquian origin


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * *


External links


Language Resources of Virginia Indians
* equires flash* ink broken*
OLAC resources in and about the Powhatan language
{{Native Americans in Maryland Eastern Algonquian languages * Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands Indigenous languages of Maryland Extinct languages of North America Languages extinct in the 18th century Native American language revitalization