On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 23:15:19 -0500, Jurretta Heckscher wrote
> Dear colleagues:
>
> Tomorrow's New York Times--and the Times Web site tonight,
> http://www.nytimes.com/--contains a valuable article on scholarly
> efforts to recover and reconstruct the Virginia Algonquian language,
> which has not been spoken since 1785, in connection with the movie "The
> New World."

Interesting article. Not to revive the "New World" movie debate but in the
article it states:
"...the paramount Indian chief Powhatan asks Capt. John Smith where his
people came from. The sky? Responding to the question, translated by an
Indian whose smattering of English probably came indirectly from the earlier
failed Roanoke colony in North Carolina..."

It's my understanding that it was Smith who had the smattering of Algonquin
derived from John White's (Roanoke Colony) writings rather than the Indians
knowing English from the Roanoke colonists.

It is good that there is more linquistic study in the Powhatan Algonquin
dialect. While it does not exist as a spoken language on its own today, it
does survive as being the primary contributor of Indian words in the English
language. As an amateur in such studies, I've done some comparisons of the
Powhatan dialect with other Algonquin dialects such as the Delaware (Lenape)
Unami dialect, and the Narraganset (New England region) dialects. I found the
most commonality between the dialects was with words for various foods such
as "fish". Curiously the Virginia dialect was closer to the New England
region dialect rather than the much closer southern Delaware dialect.

Another curious phenomena about the Virginia Powhatan dialect was the use of
the "R" consonant sound which does not exist in most other Algonquin dialects.

The impact of Powhatan and his people still resonates today with our everyday
speech.

Regards,

Tom Apple

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