Re: Algonquin or Algonkin

pollarde@email.uah.edu
Sat, 27 May 1995 23:28:26 -0500

There are six bands of Algonquin Indians in Quebec. Algonkin is the
phonetic spelling of this name. Algonquian (or Algonkian) refers to
a family of at least 13 related languages. Ten of them are spoken by
Eastern Woodlands tribes. The other three, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and
Arapaho-Atsina (Gros Ventre), belong to the Plains. Confusion arises
from the fact that some early writers used Algonkin to refer to
languages believed to be Algonquian. Likewise, Algonquian has been used
without the qualifier "-speaking" to refer to indigenous groups of North
America who speak, or presumably did so in the past, Algonquian languages.

On 23-May-1995, Lyn Dearborn (dearborn@anchor.engr.sgi.com) wrote:

> ... there is a "family" of tribes sometimes referred to as
> Algonquin because their language base is Algoquin -- it includes
> many of the Eastern Woodland tribe PLUS the Wintu and Yurok of
> California (supposedly from the Eastern Woodland originally).

Sorry. Wintu/Wintun and Patwin are in a language family by themselves.
The supposition that the Yurok and Wiyot languages are Algonquian stems
from an article by Edward Sapir published in 1913. The evidence he
presented has not been accepted as clearly demonstrating a relationship,
and it is perhaps best to say that Yurok and Wiyot are "possibly
Algonquian." I am curious to know the basis of the theory that the Wintu
and Yurok peoples were originally from the Eastern Woodlands. Perhaps the
same article by Sapir?

Grosvenor Pollard

via Elizabeth B. Pollard
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Elizabeth Pollard
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