Erie is an extinct language, believed to have been

Iroquoian 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, almost all surviving I ...

, similar to Wyandot, formerly spoken by the

Erie people The Erie people were an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian-speaking tribe, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio b ...

. It was poorly documented, and linguists are not certain that this conclusion is correct. 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,Erie (Huron: ''yěñresh,'' 'it is long-tailed', referring to the eastern puma or panther; Tuscarora, ''kěn'räks,'' 'lion', a modern use, Gallicised into Eri and Ri, whence the locatives Eri'e, and Riqué, 'at the place of the panther', are derived. Compare the forms Erieehronon, Eriechronon, and Riquéronon of the ''

Jesuit Relations ''The Jesuit Relations'', also known as ''Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (Relation de ce qui s'est passé ..'', are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 an ...

'', signifying 'people of the panther'. It is probable that in Iroquois, the puma and the wild-cat were originally referred to by the same generic name, and that the defining term has survived as the name of the puma or panther). It was a populous, sedentary Iroquoian-speaking tribe. In the 17th century, the Erie occupied territory extending south from

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

probably to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

, east to the lands of the Conestoga along the east watershed of

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...

. Their language was thought to resemble that of the Hurons (Wyandot), known as an Iroquoian people.
''Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin'' #30. Swanton"Erie". Meaning in Iroquois, "long tail," and referring to the panther, from which circumstance they are often referred to as the Cat Nation. The Erie belonged to the Iroquoian language family. Also called: GA-quA'-ga-o-no, by

Lewis Henry Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social e ...

al (1851)). At least one

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

survives from the Erie language:

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...

, a word of uncertain definition/translation.

Words

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

Notes

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