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The Abenaki (also Abnaki) language is a dialect continuum within the Eastern Algonquian languages, originally spoken in what is now Vermont, New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine. Modern Western Abenaki is currently spoken by a very small handful of Abenaki elders in Odanak, Quebec. Eastern Abenaki was spoken by elders of the Penobscot tribe in eastern Maine until the 1990s, although it is now extinct[1]. Other dialects of Eastern Abenaki, such as Caniba and Aroosagunticook, now extinct, are documented in French-language materials from the colonial period.

Western and Eastern Abenaki share many similarities but are also different in striking ways, not only in vocabulary but also phonology.

Sample vocabulary

bazegw = one
niz = two
nas = three
yaw = four
n[ô]lan * = five
ngued[ô]z * = six
tôbawôz = seven
nsôzek = eight
noliwi = nine
mdala = ten
sanôba = man
p[e]hanem * = woman
* letters in square brackets often lost in vowel syncope.

References

• Day, Gordon M. 1994a. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 1: Abenaki to English. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.
• Day, Gordon M. 1994b. Western Abenaki Dictionary. Volume 2: English to Abenaki. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 128.
• Harvey, Chris. "Abenaki". Language Geek. http://www.languagegeek.com/algon/abenaki/abenaki.html. Retrieved 2007-03-12.  
• Laurent, Joseph. 1884. New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues. Quebec: Joseph Laurent. Reprinted 2006: Vancouver: Global Language Press, ISBN 0-9738924-7-1
• "Penobscot-Abenaki Pronunciation and Spelling Guide". Native Languages of the Americas. http://www.native-languages.org/abna_guide.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-12.  
• http://www.native-languages.org/abenaki.htm

Languages of Quebec French (official language) English · Algonquin · Atikamekw · Abenaki · Cree · Malecite-Passamaquoddy  · Míkmaq · Mohawk · Innu-aimun · Inuktitut