Miami-Illinois language facts for kids

Miami-Illinois (also called Myaamia or Irenwa) is an Indigenous language from North America. It belongs to the Algonquian language family. People from the Miami and Wea tribes, along with the Illinois Confederation tribes (like the Kaskaskia and Peoria), spoke this language.

Today, the Myaamia (Miami) Nation of Indiana is working hard to bring their traditional language back to life. They teach it to both young and old members of their community.

What Kind of Language Is It?

Miami-Illinois is part of the larger Algic family and is known as an Algonquian language. It's often grouped with "Central Algonquian" languages, but this mainly describes where they were spoken, not how closely related they are.

Over time, different groups spoke slightly different versions of Miami-Illinois. The "Illinois" version was spoken by the Illinois Confederation tribes. The "Miami" version was spoken by the Miami, Wea, and Piankeshaw tribes in Indiana. By the late 1800s, there were only small differences between the Peoria, Miami, and Wea ways of speaking.

History of the Language

The story of the Miami-Illinois language has three main parts:

• When French missionaries first arrived.
• When the population decreased and people moved in the 1800s.
• When the language almost disappeared in the 1900s, before its revival.

Early Records

French Catholic missionaries were the first to write down the Miami-Illinois language in the late 1600s. Claude-Jean Allouez wrote prayers and lessons. Later, in the early 1700s, Jacques Gravier created a huge Illinois-French dictionary with almost 20,000 words! This dictionary is now kept at Trinity College in Connecticut.

Other important documents from this time include a word list by Antoine-Robert Le Boullenger and another large dictionary. Even though these records are over 300 years old, people learning modern Miami can still understand them. These documents mostly show the language spoken by the Kaskaskia tribe, which was probably used by the whole Illinois Confederation.

Changes and Moves

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Miami-Illinois people faced many challenges. Diseases brought by Europeans, wars, and new settlers caused their population to shrink quickly.

During this time, some English-speaking people also wrote down parts of the language. For example, when the Miami chief Little Turtle visited Philadelphia, it sparked interest in his culture. This led to Thomas Jefferson commissioning a word list. Another important document was the "Wea Primer," a small book written for missionaries in Kansas in 1837.

By 1832, most Miami-Illinois speakers had left Illinois and moved to Kansas. The different tribes of the Illinois Confederation joined together and became known as "Peoria" or "Kaskaskia." In 1867, these groups moved again to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Miami tribe also split, with some staying in Indiana and others moving to Oklahoma. The Miami who stayed in Indiana are now the Miami Nation of Indiana.

Language Decline

The Miami-Illinois language was used less and less after the tribes moved to Oklahoma. Many different tribes, each with their own language, lived close together. English became the common language, and native languages started to fade away.

However, some trained linguists and ethnographers (people who study cultures) like Albert Samuel Gatschet and Truman Michelson recorded valuable information about the language during this time. They wrote down stories and grammar rules, which are very helpful for understanding how the language was spoken.

It's hard to say exactly when the last native speaker of Miami-Illinois lived. By the 1930s, the language was almost gone, and by the 1970s, it was probably no longer spoken by anyone as their first language.

Bringing the Language Back

The effort to bring Miami-Illinois back to life is largely thanks to linguist David Costa. He studied the language deeply and published a book called The Miami-Illinois Language in 2003. This book helped to rebuild the language's structure.

Language Revival

Many Miami people describe their language as "sleeping" instead of "extinct." This means it wasn't completely lost, and it can be woken up again.

The Myaamia Center is a special project between the Miami tribe and Miami University. This center helps Miami people connect with their heritage through research, education, and outreach. Daryl Baldwin leads the center. He taught himself Miami by studying old documents from the Smithsonian. He has also created many educational programs. His own children were raised speaking Miami as their first language!

The Myaamia Center staff create language and culture materials using information from old missionary documents.

Some of the resources they have published include:

• A children's book about Miami language and culture.
• An audio CD set with words, phrases, conversations, and the Miami origin story.
• A collection of traditional stories from the Miami and Peoria tribes, recorded when the last native speakers were alive.

Another project at Miami University studies ethnobotany. This connects Miami language plant names with how elders traditionally gathered plants.

Sounds of Miami-Illinois

The Miami-Illinois language has sounds similar to other Central Algonquian languages.

Consonants

Miami-Illinois has thirteen different consonant sounds:

Sometimes, the sounds /s/ and /ʃ/ (like 'sh' in "ship") can switch places in some words. For example, apeehsia and apeehšia both mean "fawn."

In the Wea dialect, the /s/ sound was sometimes replaced with a "th" sound, like in "this."

Vowels

Miami-Illinois has four short vowel sounds (like in "bit," "bet," "bat," "boat") and four long vowel sounds (like in "bee," "bay," "father," "boot").

How the Grammar Works

Like all Algonquian languages, Miami-Illinois uses many small parts added to words to change their meaning. This is called being "agglutinative."

Some special features of Miami-Illinois grammar include:

• Gender: Nouns are either "animate" (living things, like people or animals) or "inanimate" (non-living things, like rocks or tables). Verbs also change based on the gender of the noun they refer to.
• Obviation: This is a way to show which of two nouns is more important or "salient" in a sentence. The less important noun is marked as "obviative."
• Clusivity: When talking about "we," the language has different forms to show if "you" (the person being spoken to) are included or not.

Nouns

Miami-Illinois nouns change their endings to show different things, like:

• Gender: Animate or inanimate.
• Number: Singular (one) or plural (more than one).
• Case: This shows the noun's role in the sentence.
  • Proximate: The main or most important noun in a sentence.
  • Obviate: The less important noun when there are two nouns.
  • Locative: Shows where something is (at, on, or in a place). For example, ahkwaanteeminki means "at the door."
  • Vocative: Used when you are directly talking to someone or something.

Possession

To show who owns something, Miami-Illinois adds prefixes to nouns. For example, niiki means "my house," and kiiki means "your house."

Pronouns

In Miami-Illinois, you don't always need to use words like "I," "you," or "he" as much as in English. The verb endings often tell you who is doing the action.

Some common pronouns are:

• niila (I/me)
• kiila (you)
• awiila (he/she/it)
• aweena (who)
• keetwi (what)

See also

In Spanish: Idioma miami-illinois para niños