Quiripi language
Template:Short description Template:Use shortened footnotes {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other
Quiripi (pronounced Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell,<ref>Salwen (1978:175)</ref> also known as Mattabesic,<ref>Native American Language Net</ref> Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island,<ref name="r1">Rudes (1997:1)</ref><ref name="g72">Goddard (1978:72)</ref> including the Quinnipiac, Unquachog, Mattabessett (Wangunk), Podunk, Tunxis, and Paugussett (subgroups Naugatuck, Potatuck, Weantinock). It has been effectively extinct since the end of the 19th century,<ref>Goddard (1978:71)</ref> although Frank T. Siebert, Jr., was able to record a few Unquachog words from an elderly woman in 1932.<ref name="r5">Rudes (1997:5)</ref>
Affiliation and dialectsEdit
Quiripi is considered to have been a member of the Eastern Algonquian branch of the Algonquian language family.<ref>Goddard (1978)</ref><ref>Mithun (1999:327)</ref> It shared a number of linguistic features with the other Algonquian languages of southern New England, such as Massachusett and Mohegan-Pequot, including the shifting of Proto-Eastern Algonquian *{{#invoke:IPA|main}} and *{{#invoke:IPA|main}} to {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, respectively, and the palatalization of earlier *{{#invoke:IPA|main}} before certain front vowels.<ref>Goddard (1978:75)</ref><ref name="r27">Rudes (1997:27)</ref> There appear to have been two major dialects of Quiripi: an "insular" dialect spoken on Long Island by the Unquachog and a "mainland" dialect spoken by the other groups in Connecticut, principally the Quinnipiac.<ref>Rudes (1997:6–7)</ref><ref>Costa (2007:116, 119)</ref>
AttestationEdit
Quiripi is very poorly attested,<ref>Costa (2007:116, 118)</ref> though some sources do exist. One of the earliest Quiripi vocabularies was a 67-page bilingual catechism compiled in 1658 by Abraham Pierson, the elder, during his ministry at Branford, Connecticut,<ref name="r1" /><ref>Mithun (1999:331)</ref> which remains the chief source of modern conclusions about Quiripi.<ref name="g72" /> Unfortunately, the catechism was "poorly translated" by Pierson,<ref name="g72" /> containing an "unidiomatic, non-Algonquian sentence structure."<ref>Costa (2007:118)</ref> It also displays signs of dialect mixture.<ref>Costa (2007:116)</ref> Other sources of information on the language include a vocabulary collected by the Rev. Ezra Stiles in the late 1700s<ref>Rudes (1997:4)</ref> and a 202-word Unquachog vocabulary recorded by Thomas Jefferson in 1791,<ref name="r5" /> though the Jefferson vocabulary also shows clear signs of dialect mixture and "external influences."<ref>Costa (2007:120)</ref> Additionally, three early hymns written circa 1740 at the Moravian Shekomeko mission near Kent, Connecticut, have been translated by Carl Masthay.<ref>Rudes (1997:2)</ref>
PhonologyEdit
Linguist Blair Rudes attempted to reconstitute the phonology of Quiripi, using the extant documentation, comparison with related Algonquian languages, as "reconstructing forward" from Proto-Algonquian.<ref>Rudes (1997:6)</ref> In Rudes' analysis, Quiripi contained the following consonant phonemes:<ref name="r18">Rudes (2007:18)</ref>
| <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^{{#if:{{#invoke:IPA|main}} was a distinct phoneme only in the mainland dialect; in Unquachog it had merged with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}| {{#invoke:IPA|main}} was a distinct phoneme only in the mainland dialect; in Unquachog it had merged with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}}} |
Quiripi's vowel system as reconstituted by Rudes was similar to that of the other Southern New England Algonquian languages. It consisted of two short vowels {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and four long vowels {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}.<ref name="r18" />
OrthographyEdit
- a – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- â – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- ch – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- h – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- i – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- k – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- m – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- n – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- o – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- ô – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- p – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- r – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- s – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- sh – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- t – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- u – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- w – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}
- y – {{#invoke:IPA|main}}<ref>Omniglot</ref>
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
- Template:Aut (2007). "The Dialectology of Southern New England Algonquian." In Papers of the 38th Algonquian Conference, ed. H. C. Wolfart. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, pp. 81–127
- Template:Aut (1978). "Eastern Algonquian Languages." In Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 70–77
- Template:Aut (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- "Quiripi (Quinnipiac, Unquachog, Wampano, Naugatuck, Mattabesic)." Native American Language Net
- "Quiripi language, alphabet, and pronunciation." Omniglot
- Template:Aut (1980). Some Helps for the Indians 1658 Bilingual Catechism, reprinted in "Language and Lore of the Long Island Indians," Readings in Long Island Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Vol. IV. Stony Brook, NY: Suffolk County Archaeological Association
- Template:Aut (1997). "Resurrecting Wampano (Quiripi) from the Dead: Phonological Preliminaries." Anthropological Linguistics (39)1:1–59
- Template:Aut (1978). "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island: Early Period." In Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pp. 160–176