Wyandot language
| Wyandot | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Canada, United States |
| Region | northeastern Oklahoma, Quebec; recently near Sandwich, Ontario, and Wyandotte, Oklahoma |
| Extinct | There was an elderly speaker in 1972. |
| Revival | Oklahoma and Quebec have limited language programs (2007) |
| modified Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | wyan1247 |
Wyandot is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot or Wyandotte, descended from the Wendat (Huron). It was last spoken by members located primarily in Oklahoma, United States and Quebec, Canada. Linguists have traditionally considered Wyandot as a dialect or modern form of Wendat.
Wyandot essentially "died out" as a spoken language nearly a century ago, though there are now attempts at revitalization. The Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma is offering Wyandot language classes in the Wyandotte Public Schools, grades K–4, and also at the Wyandotte Nation's preschool "Turtle-Tots" program. The Wendat Community of Quebec is offering adult and children's classes in the Wendat language at its village school in Wendake.
Although it is traditionally equated with or seen as a dialect of the Iroquoian Wendat (Huron), Wyandot became so differentiated as to be considered a distinct language. This change appears to have happened sometime between the mid-eighteenth century, when the Jesuit missionary Pierre Potier (1708–1781) documented the Petun dialect of Wendat in Canada, and the mid-nineteenth century. By the time the ethnographer Marius Barbeau made his transcriptions of the Wyandot language in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, in 1911-1912, it had diverged enough to be considered a separate language.
Significant differences between Wendat and Wyandot in diachronic phonology, pronominal prefixes, and lexicon challenge the traditional view that Wyandot is modern Wendat. History suggests the roots of this language are complex; the ancestors of the Wyandot were refugees from various Huronian tribes who banded together to form one tribe. After being displaced from their ancestral home in Canada on Georgian Bay, the group traveled south, first to Ohio and later to Kansas and Oklahoma. As many members of this group were Petun, some scholars have suggested that Wyandot may be more influenced by Petun than being descended from Wendat.
The work of Marius Barbeau was used by linguist Craig Kopris to reconstruct Wyandot; he developed a grammar and dictionary of the language. This work represents the most comprehensive research done on the Wyandot language as spoken in Oklahoma just prior to its extinction (or its "dormancy" as modern tribal members refer to it).
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