Quiripi | |
---|---|
Wampano | |
Native to | United States |
Extinct | ca. 1900 |
Algic
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
qyp |
Glottolog |
wamp1250 |
The location of the Paugussett, Tunxis, Podunk, Quinnipiac, Mattabesic (Wangunk), Unquachog and their neighbors, c. 1600 |
Quiripi (pronounced /ˈkwɪrɪpiː/ KWIH-rih-pee, [1] also known as Mattabesic, [2] Quiripi-Unquachog, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Wampano) was an Algonquian language formerly spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Connecticut and central Long Island, [3] [4] 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, [5] although Frank T. Siebert, Jr., was able to record a few Unquachog words from an elderly woman in 1932. [6]
Quiripi is considered to have been a member of the Eastern Algonquian branch of the Algonquian language family. [7] [8] 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 */aː/ and */eː/ to /ãː/ and /aː/, respectively, and the palatalization of earlier */k/ before certain front vowels. [9] [10] 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. [11] [12]
Quiripi is very poorly attested, [13] 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, [3] [14] which remains the chief source of modern conclusions about Quiripi. [4] Unfortunately, the catechism was "poorly translated" by Pierson, [4] containing an "unidiomatic, non-Algonquian sentence structure." [15] It also displays signs of dialect mixture. [16] Other sources of information on the language include a vocabulary collected by the Rev. Ezra Stiles in the late 1700s [17] and a 202-word Unquachog vocabulary recorded by Thomas Jefferson in 1791, [6] though the Jefferson vocabulary also shows clear signs of dialect mixture and "external influences." [18] Additionally, three early hymns written circa 1740 at the Moravian Shekomeko mission near Kent, Connecticut, have been translated by Carl Masthay. [19]
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. [20] In Rudes' analysis, Quiripi contained the following consonant phonemes: [21]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | t | tʃ | k | |
Fricative | s | (ʃ) * | h | ||
Nasal | m | n | |||
Rhotic | r | ||||
Semivowel | w | j |
^ /ʃ/ was a distinct phoneme only in the mainland dialect; in Unquachog it had merged with /s/ |
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 /a/ and /ə/, and four long vowels /aː/, /iː/, /uː/, and /ʌ̃/. [21]