Illinois language
| Miami-Illinois | |
|---|---|
| Myaamia | |
| Pronunciation | [mjɑːmia] |
| Native to | Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma |
| Extinct | mid-20th century |
| Revival | a small number of users in revival program |
|
Algic
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | miam1252 |
Miami-Illinois (Myaamia [mjɑːmia]) is a indigenous Algonquian language formerly spoken in the United States, primarily in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, western Ohio and adjacent areas along the Mississippi River by both the Miami as well as the tribes of the Illinois Confederation, including the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Tamaroa, Cahokia, and Mitchigamea.
Since the 1990s, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has worked to revive it in a joint project with Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Miami-Illinois is an Algonquian language within the larger Algic family. The name "Miami-Illinois" is a cover term for a cluster of highly similar dialects, the primary ones being Miami proper, Peoria, Wea, Piankeshaw, and, in the older Jesuit records, Illinois. About half of the surviving several hundred speakers were displaced in the 19th century from their territories, eventually settling in northeastern Oklahoma as the Miami and the Peoria. The remainder of the Miami stayed behind in northern Indiana.
The language was documented in written materials for over 200 years. Jacques Gravier, a Jesuit missionary who lived among the Kaskaskia tribe in the early 18th century, compiled an extensive and detailed Kaskaskia–French dictionary. Based on an analysis of its handwriting, it appears to have been transcribed by his assistant, Jacques Largillier.
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Wikipedia