Erie was believed to have been an

Iroquoian language The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian ...

spoken by the

Erie people The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...

, similar to

Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language Wyandot (sometimes spelled Wandat) is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wya ...

. But it was poorly documented, and linguists are not certain that this conclusion is correct. There have been no known connections between the

Erie People The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...

and Europeans, besides the French. The names ''Erie'' and ''Eriez'' are shortened forms of ''Erielhonan'', meaning "long tail", referring to local panthers. The Erie were called the "Cat people" (''Nation du Chat'' in French; Hodge 1910, Swanton). At least one

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

survives from the Erie language:

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua br ...

, a word of uncertain definition/translation."Stories behind names of many familiar places"
''Olean Times Herald''

Translation of words

*Erielhonan (Long Tail) *Ronnongwetonwanca (Good Luck) *Kahqua (Kahkwa) *Gùkulëáwo (Wolf) *Chautauqua (A bag tied in the center/middle) or (Two moccasins tied together)

Uncertain Alphabet

Aa Áá Cc CHch Ee Ëë Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Nn Oo Qq Rr Tt Uu Úú Ww

References

{{Languages of Pennsylvania Northern Iroquoian languages Extinct languages of North America Languages extinct in the 17th century Chautauqua County, New York Indigenous languages of Pennsylvania