Massachusett phonology facts for kids

The Massachusett language is an old language from the Algonquian family. It was once spoken by many Native American tribes in what is now Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. These tribes included the Massachusett, Wampanoag, Nauset, and others. It was even used as a common language between different tribes.

Sadly, the Massachusett language became dormant, meaning no one spoke it as their first language anymore, by the late 1800s. This made it hard to know exactly how it sounded. However, thanks to the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, started by Jessie Little Doe Baird in 1993, the language is being brought back to life! This project helps tribes like the Mashpee and Aquinnah learn and speak Massachusett again.

To understand how the language sounded, experts looked at old writings from colonial times. These writings were based on how English was spoken in the 1600s. They also studied other Algonquian languages that still have native speakers today.

Sounds of Massachusett: Vowels

Vowels are the open sounds we make, like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. In Massachusett, vowels can be short or long.

The short vowels are like the 'a' in "cat" (/a/) and the 'u' in "but" (/ə/). The long vowels are held longer, like the 'a' in "father" (/aː/) or the 'ee' in "tree" (/iː/). There's also a special nasal vowel (/ã/), which means some air comes out of your nose when you say it, like the 'an' in French "bon".

One interesting sound is /aːj/, which is a diphthong. This means it's a mix of two vowel sounds that glide together, like the 'i' in "sky." For example, the word wompi (wôpay) means 'it is white.'

How Vowel Sounds Changed

Since no one speaks Massachusett as their first language anymore, we don't know the exact small differences in how vowels were pronounced. But old colonial documents give us clues.

For example, the short 'a' sound (/a/) sometimes changed to a 'u' sound ([ə]) when it was followed by an 'h'. This might be because the 'a' sound was shortened or softened in those cases.

The long 'i' sound (/iː/) might have become shorter ([i]) when it was followed by 'sk' or 'shk' sounds. This is similar to what happens in some other Native American languages.

The long 'a' sound (/aː/) was written in many ways, showing it was tricky for English speakers to capture. It probably sounded like the 'a' in "father" ([aː]) but could also be deeper, like the 'aw' in "saw" ([ɔː]).

The long nasal vowel (/ã/) might have sometimes sounded more like the 'on' in French "bon" ([ɔ̃ː]). When followed by 'h', it might have sounded like a nasal 'uh' ([ə̃ː]). Old writers sometimes used a special mark (like a little hat, called a circumflex) or a silent 'm' or 'n' to show these nasal sounds.

The long 'u' sound (/uː/) was written with special letters or 'oo' in old documents. It probably changed over time from an 'o' sound ([oː]) to the 'oo' in "moon" ([uː]). This is similar to how English vowels changed during the Great Vowel Shift a long time ago. For example, the word for 'snake' was askꝏk (ask8k), pronounced /askuːk/.

Sounds of Massachusett: Consonants

Consonants are sounds where the airflow is blocked or partly blocked, like 'p', 't', 's'. Massachusett had 13 main consonant sounds.

These sounds include:

• Affricate: /tʃ/ (like 'ch' in "chair").
• Plosives: /p/ (like 'p' in "pat"), /t/ (like 't' in "top"), /k/ (like 'k' in "kit"), /kʷ/ (like 'kw' in "queen"), and /tʲ/ (a 't' sound with the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth).
• Fricatives: /s/ (like 's' in "sit"), /ʃ/ (like 'sh' in "she"), and /h/ (like 'h' in "hat").
• Nasal sounds: /m/ (like 'm' in "mat") and /n/ (like 'n' in "nap").
• Approximants: /w/ (like 'w' in "wet") and /j/ (like 'y' in "yes").

Early English missionaries found it hard to write down Massachusett sounds because the language didn't always distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds (like 'p' vs. 'b' or 't' vs. 'd'). So, they often switched between letters like 'p' and 'b', or 'k' and 'g'. This means a 'p' sound might have sometimes sounded like a 'b' depending on where it was in a word or which dialect was being spoken.

When English words were borrowed into Massachusett, new sounds like 'b', 'd', 'f', 'g', and 'v' were sometimes added. However, people who only spoke Massachusett might have changed these sounds to ones they were used to. For example, 'Frenchmen' might have been pronounced closer to panachmanog. Also, English colonists noticed that Massachusett speakers sometimes had trouble with English 'r' and 'l' sounds, pronouncing 'sleep' as sneep and 'lobster' as nobstah.

Today, the revived Wampanoag language tries to use native Massachusett words or create new ones instead of borrowing too many English words. For example, instead of just saying 'Thursday', they might use nappanatashikquinishonk (nôpanatahshuquneehshôk), which means 'that which goes five days long'.

How Sounds Fit Together: Phonotactics

Phonotactics is about which sounds can go together in a language. In Massachusett, there aren't many consonant clusters (groups of consonants) allowed, especially compared to older forms of the language.

However, sometimes short vowels (like /a/, /ə/, or /iː/) were dropped from words, especially if they weren't stressed. This could create new consonant clusters. Clusters also often appeared at the end of a word's main part, before a suffix (an ending added to a word). For example, 'dog' is annum (anum), but 'dogs' is annúmmwag (anumwak), where a 'w' sound is added.

Some common consonant clusters in Massachusett include /hk/, /hp/, /hs/, /hʃ/, /sk/, and /sp/. In some rare dialects, even more complex clusters like /kskʷ/ or /mʃ/ were heard. Sometimes, words were even changed to fit the rhythm of songs, which could create unusual clusters. For instance, wussuhquohhonk ('writing' or 'book') was sometimes changed to wussukwhonk, creating the cluster /hkʷh/.

How Sounds Change: Phonological Processes

Languages have rules for how sounds change when they are next to each other.

Vowel Affection

Sometimes, a 'y' sound (/j/) is added before a vowel if it follows certain consonants (like 'n', 'ht', 't', or 'h') and if those consonants come after an 'i' or 'uh' sound (/iː/ or /ə/). This 'y' sound is often written as a single 'e'.

For example:

• nepitt (neeput), meaning 'my tooth', becomes nepitteash (neeputeash), meaning 'my teeth'. Notice the 'e' adds the 'y' sound: /niːpətjaʃ/.

Palatization of /k/

This is a special change where the 'k' sound (/k/) shifts to a 'ch' or 'ty' sound (/tʲ/). This happens when 'k' is followed by an 'uh' sound (/ə/) that came from an old 'i' sound, and then followed by certain other consonants. It also happens when 'k' is followed by a long 'a' sound (/aː/) or an 'uhw' sound (/əw/).

In old writings, this changed 'k' sound was written in many ways, like 'ch', 'dj', or 'ty'. In the modern writing system, 'ty' is used for this changed 'k' sound.

For example:

• wetu (weetyuw), meaning 'home', is pronounced /wiːtʲəw/. It comes from an older word that had a 'k' sound.
• sachem (sôtyum), meaning 'chief', is pronounced /sãtʲəm/.

How Massachusett Sounds Developed Over Time

Languages change over thousands of years. By looking at older forms of languages, we can see how Massachusett got its sounds.

The Massachusett language comes from a very old language family called Proto-Algic, which might have been spoken around 7,000 years ago in the Pacific Northwest. Over time, groups of people moved, and their languages changed.

Around 3,000 years ago, Proto-Algonquian appeared, possibly near the Great Lakes. This language spread across North America. Then, about 1,000 years ago, Proto-Eastern Algonquian developed, likely in southern Ontario. This is the direct ancestor of Massachusett and other languages in the eastern part of North America.

From Proto-Eastern Algonquian came Proto-Southern New England Algonquian (PSNEA), which is the ancestor of all languages in southern New England, including Massachusett, Nipmuc, and Narragansett. We don't know exactly when Massachusett became its own distinct language, but by the 1400s, the people and their culture would have been familiar to the Pilgrims who arrived later.

How Consonants Changed Over Time

One big change was how the old 'th' sound (*θ) and 'l' sound (*l) in Proto-Algonquian became an 'r' sound (*r) in Proto-Eastern Algonquian. For example, the old word for 'dog' (*aθemwa) became *arəm.

Later, in Proto-Southern New England Algonquian, many 'r' sounds that came from the old 'th' sound changed to an 's' sound (*s). Also, the 's' and 'sh' sounds merged into one 's' sound.

A major change was the 'k' sound (*k) changing to a 'ty' sound (*tʲ) in certain situations, as we saw with 'home' (wetu) and 'chief' (sachem).

How Vowels Changed Over Time

The vowels also changed a lot. In the oldest Proto-Algonquian, there were short and long versions of 'a', 'e', 'i', and 'o'.

In Proto-Eastern Algonquian, the short 'i' and 'o' sounds merged with their long versions. The short 'e' sound changed to an 'uh' sound (*ə).

Then, in Proto-Southern New England Algonquian, the long 'e' sound (*e·) changed to a long 'a' sound (*a·). Also, the long 'a' sound (*a·) became a nasal vowel (*ą). The long 'i' sound (*i·) often became a short 'uh' sound (*ə) if it wasn't at the beginning of a word.

Finally, in Massachusett, the long 'o' sound (*o·) from PSNEA changed to an 'oo' sound (/uː/). This is why you see 'oo' or '8' in the modern Massachusett writing for this sound.