Loup is an extinct Algonquian language, or possibly group of languages, spoken in colonial New England. It was attested in a notebook titled Mots loups (literally translating to "wolf words"), compiled by Jean-Claude Mathevet, a priest who worked among Algonquian peoples, composing of 124 pages.[1] Loup ('Wolf') was a French colonial ethnographic term, and usage was inconsistent. In modern literature, it refers to two varieties, Loup A and Loup B.[2] The language of the Mots loups notebook is different from all other New England languages, and is believed to have been spoken by the Nipmuc.[1]
| Loup | |
|---|---|
| Nipmuck | |
| Pronunciation | [lu] loo |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Massachusetts, Connecticut |
| Ethnicity | likely Nipmuck |
| Extinct | 18th century |
| transcribed with Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:xlo – Loup Axlb – Loup B |
xlo Loup A | |
xlb Loup B | |
| Glottolog | loup1243 Nipmuckloup1245 Loup B |
Attestation
editLoup A, which is likely the language of the Nipmuck,[2] is principally attested from a word list recorded from refugees by the St. Francis mission to the Abenaki in Quebec. The descendants of these refugees became speakers of Western Abenaki in the eighteenth century. Loup B refers to a second word list, which shows extensive dialectal variation. This may not be a distinct language, but just notes on the speech of various New England Algonquian refugees in French missions.[3] According to Gustafson 2000, the geographical location and phonology of Loup rule out association with any other tribes except for the Nipmuck.[1]
Phonology
editThe phonology of Loup A (Nipmuck), reconstructed by Gustafson 2000:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal/ Postalveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | lab. | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | p | t | tʲ | k | (kʷ) | ||
| Affricate | tʃ | ||||||
| Fricative | s | h | |||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i, iː | u |
| Mid | e | o, oː |
| Open | a, aː, ã | |
The vowel sounds likely have the same phonetic quality as other southern New England Algonquian languages. The short vowels /i o e a/ may represent the sounds as [ɪ], [ʊ], [ɛ, ə], and [ʌ], while the long vowels /iː/, /oː/, and /ã/ correspond to /i/, /o/, and /ã/.[1][4]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Gustafson, Holly Suzanne (2000). A Grammar of the Nipmuck Language (PDF). Deparament of Linguistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
- ^ a b Goddard, Ives (2012). "The 'Loup' Languages of Western Massachusetts: The Dialectal Diversity of Southern New England Algonquian". Papers of the 44th Algonquian Conference. 44. SUNY Press: 104–138.
- ^ Victor Golla, 2007. Atlas of the World's Languages
- ^ Costa, David J. (2007). The Dialectology of Southern New England Algonquian (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 August 2018.
External links
edit- OLAC resources in and about the Loup A language
- OLAC resources in and about the Loup B language
- Nipmuc Language.org