page_title: Massachusett language
section_title: Massachusett influences in the English language
hierarchical_section_title: Massachusett language / Vocabulary / Massachusett influences in the English language
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Dubrovnik'ten bir görüntü
context_page_description: The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family, formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four communities of Wampanoag people. The language is also known as Natick or Wôpanâak, and historically as Pokanoket, Indian or Nonantum.
  The language is most notable for its community of literate Indians and for the number of translations of religious texts into the language. John Eliot's translation of the Christian Bible in 1663 using the Natick dialect, known as Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God, was the first printed in the Americas, the first Bible translated by a non-native speaker, and one of the earliest examples of a Bible translation into a previously unwritten language. Literate Indian ministers and teachers taught literacy to the elites and other members of their communities, influencing a widespread acceptance. This is attested in the numerous court petitions, church records, praying town administrative records, notes on book margins, personal letters, and widespread distribution of other translations of religious tracts throughout the colonial period.
context_section_description: After the failed settlement of Roanoke (1585) and the first permanent settlement at Jamestown (1607)—near speakers of Powhatan languages—shifted to New England with failed attempts at Cuttyhunk (1602) and Cape Ann (1624) and successful settlement of Plymouth (1621), Salem (1628), Massachusetts Bay (1629)—all in what is now Massachusetts and in the midst of Massachusett-speaking peoples—and a few other sites in New England. The earliest settlers struggled in the colder climate of New England, with their lives dependent on the Native American peoples for education on local agriculture, food aid, protection from less welcoming tribes and a market for trade. Through these close interactions, the English settlers adopted hundreds of words, probably hundreds more when compounds and calques of Massachusett phrases are included. The Algonquian loan words were known as 'wigwam words' with 'wigwam' coming from Massachusett Pidgin for 'house' or 'home.'
   Many of the common words such as 'papoose' (which originally referred to the Indians' children), 'squash' and 'moccasin' were popularized in 1643, even back in England, with the publication of Roger Williams' A Key into the Language of America and as a result, are often given a Narragansett etymology. Most words were likely borrowed independently until a common form won out, or re-enforced each other through similarity.  For example, New Englanders used 'wauregan' to mean 'handsome' and 'showy' until the end of the nineteenth century from an SNEA R-dialect, most likely from Quiripi wauregan, but the first settlers in Massachusetts were already familiar with the older cognate form 'wunnegin' from Massachusett wunnégan (wuneekan) from N-dialect Massachusett. Furthermore, the English settlers of the failed Popham Colony, and later settlements in what is now Maine and New Hampshire encountered mos from Eastern Abenakian, whilst settlers in the rest of New England encountered mꝏs from the SNEA languages, ultimately coalescing into English, 'moose.' Other forms were shorted beyond recognition, with 'squash' a shortened slang form of original borrowings 'isquontersquash' or 'squantersquash' from Massachusett askꝏtasquash (ashk8tasqash) or Narragansett askútasquash. Many of these 'Narragansett' terms were already known to the English settlers of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, with William Wood recording pappousse and mawcus sinnus from Pawtucket speakers of Massachusett and published in his 1634 New Englands Prospect nine years before Williams' papoòs and mocússinass.
  With westward expansion, many of the 'wigwam words' from New England and even the 'backward' grammar and syntax of Massachusett Pidgin English were carried westward by the descendants of the early colonists in communication with Native peoples, with the innocent meaning of these words changing to pejoratives or stereotypical language by the late eighteenth century as westward expansion and the pursuit of Manifest Destiny ultimately became a protracted genocide of mass killings and biological warfare. As the newly subjugated peoples of the frontier were often not Algonquian speakers and unfamiliar with these terms, they nevertheless resented the specific vocabulary used against them. Most notable is 'squaw,' borrowed from Massachusett squa (sqâ) and simply meant 'female' in general. However, as it was used only as an insult, with connotations of the submissive, obedient Indian wife, the outspoken old Indian woman or the exotic temptress of the wilderness, and folk etymologies have been assigned that many contemporary people believe, such as the origin of the word from an old Iroquoian phrase for female genitals.
  Tribal groups, Native advocacy groups and social pressure has led to name changes of several species and place names, but 'squaw' remains a common element in these domains. Similarly, many of the Algonquian loan words can be used to construct offensively, stereotypical sentences such as 'firewater,' 'bury the hatchet,' 'wampum,' 'papoose,' 'powwow' and 'brave,' especially when used in Native-specific contexts, were lo
caption: Man with a baby in a papoose
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