Episode 29 The Original American Languages Part 3

Dr John McWhorter (2019)

Film Review

Iroquois

The Iroquois family of languages was found mainly around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, the Finger Lakes in New York state and a few southern coastal areas. These include Oneida, Mohawk, Cherokee, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Erie.

Cherokee has it own writing system devised by a Cherokee blacksmith before Andrew Jackson banished the Cherokee from mainstream America society. Sequohay, who created Cherokee script, referred to the European written language as “talking leaves.” Although he spoke no English, he borrowed the English alphabet to depict Cherokee sounds. Instead of creating a Cherokee alphabet for individual consonants and vowels, he created a “syllabary,” in which English letters represented syllables.

Eventually most Cherokee learned it and in the 1820 began publishing literature in the Cherokee languages. In the 1830s, a Cherokee migrant introduced Sequohay’s syllabary in  Liberia where it was used to transcribe Vai (a Niger Congo language see Niger Congo: Biggest Language Family in Africa).

Hokan

The Hokan family of languages was spoken in Baja California and isolated areas further north. The most widespread Hokan language was Pomo, which had an elaborate system of verb prefixes.

Tanoam and Kayhoan

The Tanoam family of languages was spoken in the four corners states (Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico), and the Kayhoan family in Oklahoma.

Although these languages persist, they have become simplified over time with exposure to other language groups. For example some have ceased using irregular plurals or using future and/or past tense.

Pidgin Languages

Numerous pidgin languages (see What Are Creole Languages?) have developed with exposure to other indigenous speakers and French and English settlers. One example is Plains Sign Language different tribes used to communicate with one another. Another is Chinook Jargon, a Chinook/Nudge pidgin which was also used by French and English speakers. Although not a full language, it was effective for communicating basic needs.

Other pidgins that developed were Eskimo Jargon, Mobilian Jargon and Delaware Jargon. Swedish settlers spoke a simplified version of Munsee, a Delaware dialect (part of the Algonquin language family), in which they spoke words only without grammatical context.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120056