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91-691: The Charles River ( Massachusett : Quinobequin ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles , is an 80-mile-long (129 km) river in eastern Massachusetts . It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles back on itself several times and travels through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean . The indigenous Massachusett named it Quinobequin , meaning "meandering" or "meandering still water". The Charles River

182-505: A dialect continuum , with boundaries between languages and dialects softened by transitional speech varieties. Small differences existed between neighboring communities, but these increased with distance and isolation, and speakers from opposite ends of the continuum would have slightly more difficulties with inter-comprehension, but all the SNEA languages and dialects were mutually intelligible to some extent. Numerous dialects were lost during

273-439: A Bible translation into a previously unwritten language. Literate Native American ministers and teachers taught literacy to the elites and other members of their communities, influencing a widespread acceptance. This is attested in the numerous court petitions, church records, praying town administrative records, notes on book margins, personal letters, and widespread distribution of other translations of religious tracts throughout

364-632: A few decades before the first permanent English colonial settlement in New England at Plymouth. When the Pilgrims established their outpost, they were greeted in English by Samoset , originally an Abenaki of coastal Maine, and Tisquantum ('Squanto'), a local Wôpanâak, but both of their home villages were also wiped out by an epidemic caused by infectious agents unknown in the New World. Tisquantum

455-450: A local stem * pere- and an ancient alternative stem for 'fish,' * -aᐧmeᐧkwa , likely Proto-Western SNEA * pīramākw /piːramaːkʷ/ . Although Nipmuc is close to Massachusett, it is conservative in that it retains more noun and verb finals that are truncated in most environments in other SNEA languages. The most defining feature of Massachusett in comparison to other SNEA languages is the outcome of /n/ in reflexes of PEA * r , itself

546-640: A merger of Proto-Algonquian * r and * θ . Massachusett and its dialects always have /n/ and thus its classification as an SNEA N-dialect. This becomes /j/ in the Y-dialects of Narragansett, Eastern and Western Niantic and Mohegan-Pequot, /r/ in the R-dialects of Quiripi and /l/ in the L-dialect Nipmuc language. ^1 Only appears with diminutive as 'puppy,' more common word is náhtiá . ^2 Possibly Williams' recording of

637-750: A significant number of boathouses on its banks, from its mouth at Boston Harbor to its source at Echo Lake in Hopkinton . The boathouses are mostly situated along the Boston and Cambridge banks of the Charles River Basin , upstream as far as the Arsenal Street Bridge , and downstream as far as the Charles River Dam . Many of the boathouses belong to universities, including Boston University , Harvard University ,

728-618: A way to use the Charles to power mills. In 1639, the town dug a canal from the Charles to a nearby brook that drained to the Neponset River . By this action, a portion of the Charles's flow was diverted, providing enough current for several mills. The new canal and the brook together are now called Mother Brook . The canal is regarded as the first industrial canal in North America. It remains in use for flood control . Waltham

819-440: Is also very likely to have been interchangeable in some dialects. The majority of the people of Nati ck also mainly used the older variant despite Eliot using the alternate form in his translations. This may be explained by the fact that the original settlers of Natick were Massachusett people from Neponse t , but after King Philip's War, the community attracted many Nipmuc whose dialects generally prefer /-ək/ . As Eliot employed

910-560: Is common along the Charles. With catches from the Charles from Natick to Boston the public is advised not to eat carp , and for non-pregnant, non-nursing adults, to limit large mouth bass consumption to no more than twice a month. Children and pregnant or nursing women should eat nothing from the Charles River. Both cautions are due to PCB and pesticide contamination. Up river from Natick, similar advisories are in effect for all fish on account of mercury , chlordane , and DDT in

1001-520: Is fed by approximately 80 streams and several major aquifers as it flows 80 miles (129 km), starting at Teresa Road just north of Echo Lake ( 42°12′54″N 71°30′52″W  /  42.215°N 71.514444°W  / 42.215; -71.514444 ) in Hopkinton, passing through 23 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts before emptying into Boston Harbor . Thirty-three lakes and ponds and 35 municipalities are entirely or partially part of

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1092-585: Is home to a wide range of freshwater fish species and some diadromous species. There are over 25 species able to be found in the Charles and some of the most common freshwater fish include the Redfin Pickerel, Largemouth Bass, Golden Shiner, Yellow Perch, a variety of sunfish (such as Bluegills, Redbreast Sunfish, and Pumpkinseeds), and some species of catfish (Yellow Bullhead, Brown Bullhead, White Bullhead). The diadromous fish (fish that spend parts of their lives in fresh and salt water) that can be found in

1183-793: Is in the Eastern branch of Algonquian languages , which comprises all the known Algonquian languages spoken from the Canadian Maritimes southward to the Carolinas. Within the Eastern divisions, Massachusett clusters with the Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA) languages. If considered a dialect of SNEA, it is an SNEA 'N-dialect.' Other Eastern language divisions include the Abenakian languages spoken to

1274-518: Is increasing. Until the end of the 17th century, Massachusett was a locally important language. In its simplified pidgin form, it was adopted as a regional lingua franca of New England and Long Island. As a native language, its dialects were spoken by several peoples inhabiting the coastal and insular regions of Massachusetts, adjacent portions of northern and southeastern Rhode Island, and portions of southeastern and coastal New Hampshire, with transitional dialects historically extending as far north as

1365-570: Is likely that Massachusett Pidgin English lost its native features and merged with the evolution of local speech, one of the varieties of Eastern New England English or even General American of the majority non-Native Americans of the region in a process similar to decreolization . Massachusett Pidgin English had the following characteristics: Massachusett loan words (shared Massachusett Pidgin vocabulary) List of Charles River boathouses The Charles River in Massachusetts has

1456-574: Is most notable for its community of literate Native Americans and for the number of translations of religious texts into the language. John Eliot 's translation of the Christian Bible in 1663 using the Natick dialect, known as Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God , was the first printed in the Americas, the first Bible translated by a non-native speaker, and one of the earliest examples of

1547-503: Is popular with runners and bikers. Many runners gauge their distance and speed by keeping track of the mileage between the bridges along the route. After two decades of water quality improvement efforts spearheaded by the Environmental Protection Agency, on July 13, 2013, swimming for the general public was officially permitted for the first time in more than 50 years. Fishing from the banks or small craft

1638-626: The 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 -mile (15 km) tidal estuary from Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor. From 1816 to 1968, the U.S. Army operated a gun and ammunition storage and later production facility known as the Watertown Arsenal . While it was key to many of the nation's war efforts over its several decades in operation, not the least of which being the American Civil War and World War I , its location in Watertown so near

1729-510: The /-ət/ alone is not diagnostic of Massachusett. The traditional method of referring to the language was simply hettꝏonk ( hutuwôk ) /hətəwãk/ , 'that which they [can] speak to each other' Dialects or languages that were harder to understand were siogontꝏwaonk ( sayakôtuwâôk ) /sajakãtəwaːãk/ , 'difficult language', contrasting with penꝏwantꝏaog ( peen8wôtuwâôk ) /piːnuːwãtəwaːãk/ , 'foreign' or 'strange language.' When needed to refer to specific people or places,

1820-466: The /-ət/ form in his translations, this form spread as the 'standard' in writing. Many instances seem to have been standardized by colonial mapmakers and Indian translators themselves. For instance, the colonists referred to a hill that once existed as Hassunek or Hassunet Hill, but the name survives today as Assone t Street in Worcester. Similarly, Asnacome t Pond, in a formerly Nipmuc-language area,

1911-756: The Charles River Speedway operated along part of the river. Today's Charles River basin between Boston and Cambridge is almost entirely a work of human design. Owen A. Galvin was appointed head of the Charles River Improvement Commission by Governor William E. Russell in 1891. Their work led to the design initiatives of noted landscape architects Charles Eliot and Arthur Shurcliff , both of whom had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted and Guy Lowell . This designed landscape includes over 20 parks and natural areas along 19 miles (31 km) of shoreline, from

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2002-723: The Environmental Protection Agency graded the river's 2017 bacterial water quality "A−". A study published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association in April 2008 and completed by researchers at Northeastern University, found high concentrations of E. coli bacteria in the Charles River after a long period of no rain. Using a mathematical model , the researchers then determined that two major tributaries,

2093-755: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located along the Charles River. Near its mouth, it forms the border between downtown Boston and Cambridge and Charlestown . The river opens into a broad basin and is lined by the parks of the Charles River Reservation . On the Charles River Esplanade stands the Hatch Shell , where concerts are given in summer evenings. The basin is especially known for its Independence Day celebration. The middle section of

2184-400: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and Northeastern University . Other boathouses belong to private clubs, some of which date back to the 19th century, while others belong to non-profit organizations dedicated to making the river accessible to the public for various types of boating. There are a modest number of for-profit boathouses that offer public boating services on the river above

2275-542: The Stony Brook and Muddy River , are the predominant sources of E. coli in the lower Charles River. Starting in 2007, the Charles River Swimming Club has organized an annual race for its members, but obtains a special permit and must monitor water quality and rainfall in the days leading up to the race. The "first public swim" in the Charles since the 1950s was conducted on July 13, 2013, by

2366-674: The Watertown Dam . Charles River Canoe & Kayak, which operates a boathouse in Newton , also provides rental services at other locations on the river. The biggest event of the year involving the boathouses is the Head of the Charles Regatta , held every October. The houses see usage nearly year-round, weather permitting and pending the icing over of the Charles in winter months. Download coordinates as: This list starts from

2457-600: The "barbarous names" for "English" ones. The Prince made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is the Charles River which Charles named for himself. The native name for the Charles River was Quinobequin , possibly meaning "meandering" in Massachusett from quinnuppe or "it turns." Other sources state this name was transferred from the Kennebec River in Maine to Cambridge by Prince Charles at

2548-626: The 'Fox Sachem' of the Pequot was known to late-stage speakers as Wôqs /wãkʷs/ whereas the English name 'Uncas' likely preserves an older dialectal and pre-syncopated stage pronunciation of /[w]ãkʷəhs/ , cf. Massachusett wonquiss ( wôquhs ) /wãkʷəhs/ , indicating that the transition was not complete in New England when the English colonists arrived. When it appears in Massachusett documents, it seems to be indicative of dialectal features or in forced situations, such as sung versions of

2639-599: The 1620s, Captain John Smith of Jamestown explored and mapped the coast of New England, originally naming the Charles River the Massachusetts River, which he derived from the Massachusett people living in the region, not from their actual name for the river, Quinobequin . When Smith presented his map to Prince Charles, future King Charles I , he suggested that the Prince should feel free to change any of

2730-710: The 1960s, and the program to clean up the Charles for good took shape in 1965 with the creation of the Charles River Watershed Association. In 1978, a new Charles River Dam was constructed downstream from the Science Museum site to keep salt water out of the basin. In 1995, the United States Environmental Protection Agency declared a goal of making the river swimmable by 2005. In 1996, Governor William Weld plunged, fully clothed, into

2821-570: The Charles River drainage basin . Despite the river's length and relatively large drainage area (308 square miles; 798 km), its source is only 26 miles (42 km) from its mouth, and the river drops only 350 feet (107 m) from source to sea. The Charles River watershed contains more than 8,000 acres (32 km) of protected wetlands, referred to as Natural Valley Storage. These areas are important in preventing downstream flooding and providing natural habitats to native species. Harvard University , Brandeis University , Boston University , and

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2912-659: The Charles River Basin. In the 1950s a highway, Storrow Drive , was built along the edge of the Esplanade to connect Charles Circle with Soldiers Field Road, and the Esplanade was enlarged on the water side of the new highway. The Inner Belt highway was proposed to cross the Charles River at the Boston University Bridge , but its construction was canceled in the 1970s. As sewage , industrial wastewater and urban runoff flowed freely into

3003-538: The Charles River Conservancy, Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA), Esplanade Association, and DCR. Both the annual race and the Conservancy event have been held in deep water with swimmers jumping in off a dock, to avoid the toxic sediments on the bottom of the river that still make beach swimming dangerous. Swimming without a permit is punishable by a fine up to $ 250. The Charles River

3094-473: The Charles River is often at its worst after a large rainfall because of pollutants carried by runoff, and sewage overflows. For 2011, the EPA reported that the Charles met state bacterial standards for boating and swimming 96% and 89% of the time on dry days, and 74% and 35% of the time on wet days, respectively. Overall boatability and swimability of 82% and 54% in 2011 compared with 39% and 19% in 1995. In June 2018,

3185-578: The Charles are mostly anadromous species (fish that migrate from sea to freshwater to spawn). These include the Alewife Herring, American Shad, White Perch, and Striped Bass. The only catadromous species (fish that migrate from freshwater to sea to spawn) in the Charles is the American Eel. With the many initiatives to improve the health of the river in the years since the formation of the CRWA,

3276-401: The Charles did great environmental harm. The arsenal was declared a Super Fund site, and after its closure by the government it had to be cleaned at significant expense before it could be safely used again for other purposes. Likewise, the many factories and mills along the banks of the Charles supported a buoyant economy in their time but left a legacy of massive pollution. For several years,

3367-739: The Charles near the Museum of Science and river tour boat excursions depart from a lagoon near the museum. In early June, the Hong Kong Boston Dragon Boat Festival is held in Cambridge , near the Weeks Footbridge . The Charles River Bike Path runs 23 miles (37 km) along the banks of the Charles, starting at the Museum of Science and passing the campuses of MIT, Harvard and Boston University. The path

3458-641: The Coweset dialect. 'Abenakian syncope' was an areal feature that had spread from the Abenakian languages to Mahican , a Delawarean language, and was beginning to spread into SNEA during the early colonial period. The feature was obligatory in the Quiripi, Unquachoag, Montauk, Mohegan and Pequot dialects of the Long Island sound, frequent in Nipmuc and mostly absent in Massachusett and Narragansett. For example

3549-845: The Lower Basin, Union Boat Club. The Lower Basin between the Longfellow and Harvard (Massachusetts Avenue) bridges has the sailing docks of Community Boating , the Harvard University Sailing Center, and the MIT Sailing Pavilion. Sailboat, kayak, and paddleboard rentals are available at the Boston University Sailing Pavilion. Charles River Canoe and Kayak has four locations along the Charles, renting kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards. Duck Boats regularly enter

3640-565: The MIT Sea Grant College Program and the Charles River Alliance of Boaters (CRAB). Online and hardcopy charts are available as a public service. The river is busy, apart from the winter months, with rowing , sculling , canoeing , kayaking , paddleboarding , dragonboating , and sailing , both recreational and competitive. Most of the watercraft activity occurs from the Museum of Science to

3731-626: The Massachusett (people).' Massachusee was the correct short form in traditional Massachusett usage to refer to the people and the language, despite the adoption of Massachusett in English, hence the translation of the Massachusett Psalter as Massachusee Psalter . The people and language take their name from the sacred hill, known in English as Great Blue Hill . The name derives from missi- ( muhs- ), 'big,' 'sacred,' or 'great,' [w]achuwees ( [w]achuwees ) /[w]atʃəw[iː]s/ , 'hill' (literally 'small mountain') and

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3822-732: The Massachusett translations of the Psalms of David in the Massachusee Psalter. In dialects that permitted syncopation, it generally involved the deletion of /ə/ , /a/ and occasionally /iː/ , usually at the end of a word, after a long vowel, or metrical factors such as the Algonquian stress rules which deleted these vowels in weakly stressed positions. In Massachusett, there are some syncopated forms such as kuts /kəts/ , ' cormorant ,' and ꝏsqheonk /wəskʷhjᵊãk/ , 'his/her blood,' but these are rare instances compared to

3913-572: The Massachusett, Pawtucket, Wampanoag, Nauset, and Coweset peoples, although the Nauset may have just been an isolated sub-tribe of the Wampanoag. Several regional pidgin varieties of major Eastern Algonquian languages are attested in colonial records, including those based on Mahican, Munsee, Powhatan, and in New England, Massachusett. These pidgin varieties all featured reduced vocabulary and grammar simplifications. These pidgin varieties were used as

4004-676: The Massachusett-language documents, indicating it was a dialectal feature. In place names of Algonquian origin in Massachusetts, the Massachusett innovation covers most of the Massachusett, Pawtucket, Wampanoag and Coweset areas and also seems to have spread into Narragansett and Nipmuc. However, the Nantucket and Nauset were historically /-ək/ , as were many dialects of Nipmuc and likely in Narragansett, although it

4095-660: The Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies initially referred to Massachusett as the Indian language , at first because they were unaware of the ethnic and linguistic boundaries between peoples. Massachusett was adopted as a general term, although due to the influence of the Indian mission and the success of the Praying Town of Natick, Natick also was a common reference to the language, especially in written form. In

4186-415: The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service , targeted American Shad as a species to revive in the river's ecosystem. In the years from 2006 to 2011, the river was stocked with millions of shad fry. Research showed that these shad were in fact returning to the river to spawn, a testament to the improved health of the river. Massachusett language The language

4277-577: The Natick do.' Small differences can be ascertained from the written sources, but most records indicate that the Massachusett-speaking people spoke very similarly to each other. Daniel Gookin, who had accompanied Eliot on his tours of the Praying towns, noted that the Pawtucket, Pokanoket (Mashpee Wampanoag), and Massachusett all spoke essentially the same language. Ives Goddard, in quoting the ethnopolitical boundaries as listed by John R. Swanton or Frederick Webb Hodge lists five dialects, Natick, North Shore, Wampanoag, Nauset and Coweset which correspond to

4368-404: The Native Americans well, but the Native Americans would speak to each other at times in a similar but baffling tongue, either as their natural language but also probably to restrict information exchange with the foreign English settlers. The pidgin variety varied from Massachusett in the following ways: Simplification of vocabulary Use of non-Massachusett vocabulary Reduction of verbs to

4459-419: The New Dam at the Charlestown Bridge to the dam near Watertown Square. Eliot first envisioned today's river design in the 1890s, an important model being the layout of the Alster basin in Hamburg , but major construction began only after Eliot's death with the damming of the river's mouth at today's Boston Museum of Science , an effort led by James Jackson Storrow . The new dam, completed in 1910, stabilized

4550-551: The Plymouth Colony, both Massachusett and Wampanoag , especially since the colony covered most of their traditional territory, were in general use. These three terms remain the most common way of referring to the language in English today, supplanting older colonial names such as Nonantum , Pokanoket or Aberginian . In more technical contexts, Massachusett is often known by names referring to its pan-ethnic usage, such as Massachusett-Wampanoag , Wampanoag-Massachusett , Massachusett-Coweset or Massachusett-Narragansett , although

4641-426: The SNEA languages, including Massachusett, can be differentiated from other Eastern branch languages by several shared innovations including the merger of PEA * hr and * hx into * hš , palatization of PEA * k to SNEA * t where it occurs after PEA * ē and some instances of PA * i , palatization of PEA * sk in similar environments to * hč and word-final PEA * r merging into * š . Within SNEA, Massachusett shares

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4732-561: The Wampanoag of Cape Cod and the Islands, with a handful of children who are growing up as the first native speakers in more than a century. Yurok (Puliklah) language (revived) Wiyot (Wishosk) language (†) Plains Algonquian Central Algonquian Abenakian Massachusett language (revived) Narragansett language (†) Nipmuc language (†) Quiripi-Naugatuck-Unquachog language (†) Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk language (†) Delaware languages Nanticoke language (†) Powhatan (†) Carolina Algonquian (†) Massachusett

4823-440: The area surrounding four communities on Cape Cod and the Islands and nearby regions just a little "off Cape" including Mashpee , Aquinnah , Freetown , and Cedarville, Plymouth which are the home of the federally recognized Mashpee and Aquinnah tribes and Assonet and Herring Pond communities that participate in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. Other groups with some ancestry from Massachusett-speaking peoples include

4914-455: The center of Watertown , above which is a dam. These 17 miles (27 km) see motorboat traffic from two marinas and a boat ramp near Watertown, as well as two marinas downstream and boats entering from Boston Harbor through an old lock next to the Museum of Science. A canoe and kayak ADA-accessible launch at Magazine Beach in Cambridge opened 23 September 2019. The Charles is renowned as a rowing and sculling locale, with many boathouses and

5005-412: The colonial period. The dialects of the language were formerly spoken by several peoples of southern New England , including all the coastal and insular areas of eastern Massachusetts , as well as southeastern New Hampshire , the southernmost tip of Maine and eastern Rhode Island , and it was also a common second or third language across most of New England and portions of Long Island . The use of

5096-452: The depopulation of the Native peoples due to outbreaks of disease and the chaos of King Philip's War. Although afflicted by several epidemics caused by exposure to pathogens to which they had no previous exposure, the outbreak of leptospirosis in 1616–19 and a virulent smallpox epidemic in 1633 nearly cleared the land of Native Americans. The first outbreak hit the densely populated coastal areas with mortality rates as high as 90 percent, but

5187-413: The fish. Long before European settlers named and shaped the Charles, Native Americans living in New England made the river a central part of their lives. At the time of European colonization in the early 1600s, settlements of Massachusett people were present along the river at Nonantum in current-day Newton and Pigsgusset in current-day Watertown . Prior to the arrival of Puritan colonists in

5278-407: The health and variety of fish in the river have greatly improved. One example of this is the reintroduction of American Shad into the Charles. American Shad used to be one of the most common species in the river until the 1800s when population numbers decreased because of new dams and poor water quality. With improved water quality and partial dam breaches created in modern times, the CRWA, along with

5369-539: The immediate north and the Delawaran languages to the west and southwest of the SNEA region. South of the Delawaran languages are the Nanticokan languages of the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River watershed, the Powhatan languages of coastal Virginia and the Carolina Algonquian languages of the Carolinas. The Eastern languages are the only genetic grouping to have emerged from Algonquian, as all the languages descend from Proto-Eastern Algonquian (PEA), which differentiated likely due to isolation from other Algonquian speakers due to

5460-406: The intransitive inanimate Although the use of Massachusett Pidgin declined in favor of Massachusett Pidgin English, especially once the English settlers established their foothold and saw little use in the language of a people whose lands they were usurping and were dying off from disease. Interest in Massachusett Pidgin and other Algonquian pidgin languages comes from the fact that they were likely

5551-462: The language in the intertribal communities of Christian converts, called praying towns , resulted in its adoption by some groups of Nipmuc and Pennacook . The revitalization of the language began in 1993 when Jessie Little Doe Baird ( Mashpee Wampanoag ) launched the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP). It has successfully reintroduced the revived Wampanoag dialect to the Mashpee , Aquinnah , Assonet, and Herring Pond communities of

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5642-474: The larger Wampanoag, isolated Wampanoag settlements on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and Mashpee on the mainland. After another century of extreme assimilation pressure, intermarriage, and the necessity of learning and using English in daily life, the language disappeared from Massachusett-speaking communities by the 19th century, with the very last speakers dying off at the century's end on Martha's Vineyard. Contemporary speakers are restricted to

5733-446: The latter epidemic had a broader impact. The epidemics opened the Massachusett-speaking peoples to attacks from regional rivals, such as the Narragansett and Pennacook and historic enemies such as the Tarratine (Abenaki) and Mohawk, as well as removed any resistance to colonial expansion. The war caused many Native peoples to flee the area, and remnant populations regrouped, merging dialect communities and disparate peoples. Knowledge of

5824-442: The little long pond"), and Quinnipiac River ("long pond") in present-day Massachusetts , Connecticut , and New Hampshire . As native populations were driven out by European settlers, the Charles River became an early center for hydropower and manufacturing in North America. Although in portions of its length, the Charles drops slowly in elevation and has relatively little current, early settlers in Dedham, Massachusetts , found

5915-451: The locative suffix -ett ( -ut ). The syncopation of the diminutive ( -ees ) to -s was common in dialects and rapid or relaxed speech, thus the colonial form wachus as opposed to careful Massachusett ( wachuwees ). The Wampanoag tribes affiliated with the WLRP refer to the language as ( Wôpanâôtuwâôk ), possibly back-rendered into the colonial spelling as Wampanaontꝏwaonk , 'Wampanoag language' to refer not only to

6006-418: The main source of words from the Algonquian languages. For instance, the early Pilgrims and Puritans only make references to wigwams and never wetu s . Similarly, sagamore was in common frequency as sachem in the early English of New England. A handful of Native Americans had rudimentary knowledge of English through occasional contacts with English seafarers, adventurers, fishermen and traders for

6097-417: The majority of linguists consider Narragansett a separate albeit closely related language. Due to the heavy scholarly, cultural and media attention surrounding the revival of the language under the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project of Jessie Little Doe Baird, and also because the Wampanoag far outnumber Massachusett people, the use of 'Wampanoag' or its revived form 'Wôpanâak' to refer to the entire language

6188-410: The medium of communication between speakers of dialects or languages with limited mutual intelligibility. Massachusett Pidgin was used as a common language over New England and Long Island and was likely used with the foreign English settlers. For instance, Edward Winslow describes a situation in his 1624 Good News from New England where he and a few other Pilgrims were able to converse and understand

6279-418: The more common kuttis ( kutuhs ) /kətəhs/ and wusqueheonk ( wusqeeheôk ) /wəskʷiːhjᵊãk/ , respectively, that also appear in Eliot's translations. Although a clear dialectal feature, unfortunately, the majority of documents are of unknown authorship and geographic origin. The locative suffix, as in 'Massachus ett ' with /-ət/ prevails in a three-to-one ratio over the older /-ək/ variant in

6370-438: The most similarity to Narragansett and Nipmuc, its immediate neighbors, with a handful of lexical items indicating an east-west division. For example, the word 'fish' is namohs ( namâhs ) in Massachusett, namens In Nipmuc and Narragansett namaùs , all likely pronounced similarly to /namaːhs/ from Proto-Algonquian * nameᐧʔsa , contrasting with Mohegan-Pequot piyamáq and Quiripi opéramac which derives from

6461-472: The name of the people or place was followed by unnontꝏwaog ( unôtuwâôk ) /ənãtəwaːãk/ to indicate 'its people's language' or 'that which the people speak'. In the colonial period, the language was generally known as Massachusett unnontꝏwaonk ( Muhsachuweesut unôtuwâôk ) /məhsatʃəwiːsət ənãtəwaːãk/ , 'language of the Massachusett (region)' or Massachusee unnontꝏwaonk ( Muhsachuweesee unôtuwâôk ) /məhsatʃəwiːsiː ənãtəwaːãk/ , 'language of

6552-491: The number of English settlers grew and quickly outnumbered the local peoples, Natives grew to use English more often, and the settlers also used it to communicate with the Native Americans. The resulting pidgin was probably the vector of transmission of many of the so-called 'wigwam words,' i.e., local Algonquian loan words, that were once prevalent in the English spoken in the Americas. Massachusett Pidgin English

6643-490: The presence of large pockets of Iroquoian and Siouan languages and the Appalachian Mountains . The Central and Plains , however, are groupings based on areal features and geographical proximity. The SNEA languages were all mutually intelligible to some extent, existing in a dialect chain or linkage , with the boundaries between quite distinct dialects blurred by a series of transitional varieties. All

6734-787: The river between the Watertown Dam and Wellesley is partially protected by the properties of the Upper Charles River Reservation and other state parks, including the Hemlock Gorge Reservation , Cutler Park , and the Elm Bank Reservation . A detailed depth chart of the lower basin of the Charles River, from near the Watertown Dam to the New Charles River Dam , has been created by a partnership between

6825-493: The river from the surrounding city, the Charles River became well known for its high level of pollutants , gaining such notoriety that by 1955, Bernard DeVoto wrote in Harper's Magazine that the Charles was "foul and noisome, polluted by offal and industrious wastes, scummy with oil, unlikely to be mistaken for water." Fish kills and submerged vehicles were a common sight, along with toxic chemical plumes that colored parts of

6916-453: The river pink and orange. The Standells sang about the sorry state of the Charles in their 1965 song " Dirty Water ". Once popular with swimmers, awareness of the river's high pollution levels forced the state to shut down several popular swimming areas, including Cambridge's Magazine Beach and Gerry Landing public beaches. Efforts to clean up the river and restore it to a state where swimming and fishing would be acceptable began as early as

7007-655: The river to prove his commitment to cleaning up the river. On November 12, 2004, Christopher Swain became the first person to swim the Charles River's entire length, in an effort to raise public awareness of the river's environmental health. In July 2007, the river hosted the Charles River Masters Swim Race, the first sanctioned race in the Charles in over five decades. A combination of public and private initiatives helped drastically lower levels of pollutants by focusing on eliminating combined sewer overflows and stormwater runoff . Since Weld's stunt,

7098-545: The river's condition has improved dramatically, although it was not deemed entirely swimmable by 2005. The Conservation Law Foundation opposes the permit given to Mirant for the Veolia Energy North America Kendall Cogeneration Station , an electricity plant near Kendall Square , charging that the water it releases causes blooms of hazardous microorganisms because of its warm temperature. The water quality of

7189-491: The southernmost tip of Maine. Due to the waves of epidemics that killed off most of the Native peoples, competition with the large influx of English colonists for land and resources, and the great upheaval in the wake of King Philip's War , by the beginning of the 18th century, the language and its speakers had contracted into a shrinking land base and population, concentrated in the former praying towns of Natick and Ponkapoag and

7280-569: The spoken language and its diversity ceased with the death of the last speakers of SNEA languages. Most had ceased to be functional, everyday languages of the Native American communities by the end of the eighteenth century, if not sooner, and all were extinct by the dawning of the twentieth century. Most linguistic knowledge relies on word lists and passing mention in colonial sources, which can only provide very limited understanding. Written records do show some variation, but dialect leveling

7371-499: The spoken language as well, as it was recited when Bible passages were read aloud during sermons or any written document. Experience Mayhew , himself bilingual in the language and from a direct line of missionaries to the Native Americans of Martha's Vineyard, where the speech was said to be completely unintelligible to neighboring Wampanoag from the mainland noted that '... most of the little differences betwixt them have been happily Lost, and our Indians Speak, but especially write much as

7462-590: The three-mile Head of the Charles Regatta , the world's largest long-distance rowing regatta. The major boathouses, starting up stream near Watertown, are Community Rowing, Inc. , housing competitive, recreational, and learning programs along with the Boston College Crew; Northeastern University's Henderson; Cambridge Boat Club; Newell , home of Harvard Men's Rowing; Weld , home of Harvard Women's Rowing; Riverside Boat Club; Boston University's DeWolfe; Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Pierce; and, in

7553-578: The time he renamed this river in his name. Still another explanation is that Quinobequin was a descriptive term for any long body of water for Eastern Algonquin peoples, which European explorers and settlers interpreted as a local proper name. Examples include the Kennebec River ("long water place") and Kennebunk in Maine , the Quinebaug River ("long pond"), Quinapoxet River ("at

7644-700: The tribes that absorbed the refugees of King Philip's War such as the Abenaki ( Alnôbak ) of northern New Hampshire, Vermont and Québec ; the Schaghticoke ( Pishgachtigok ) of western Connecticut along the border with New York and the Brothertown or Brotherton ( Eeyawquittoowauconnuck ) and Stockbridge-Munsee ( Mahiikaniiw - Munsíiw ) , both amalgamations of peoples of southern New England and elsewhere that relocated to Wisconsin. The Southern New England Algonquian languages existed in

7735-432: The varieties used historically by the Wampanoag people, but also to the Massachusett language as a whole. The name derives from wampan- ( wôpan- ), 'east' or 'dawn,' and thus signifies 'language of the easterners' or 'language of the people of the dawn.' Modern speakers of the revived dialect shorten this to ( Wôpanâak ) (Wampanoag), even though this technically refers only to the people. The English settlers of

7826-515: The water level from Boston to Watertown, eliminating the existing mud flats, and a narrow embankment was built between Leverett Circle and Charlesgate. After Storrow's death, his widow Mrs. James Jackson Storrow donated $ 1 million toward the creation of a more generously landscaped park along the Esplanade; it was dedicated in 1936 as the Storrow Memorial Embankment. This also enabled the construction of many public docks in

7917-589: Was abducted by the crew of English vessel, sold into slavery in Spain , mysteriously found his way to London where gained employment on English explorations of the North American coast and later escaped and took up residence in a neighboring Wôpanâak village. As the Native Americans were already in a multi-dialectal, multilingual society, English was adopted quite quickly albeit with strong influences of Massachusett lexicon, grammar and likely pronunciation. As

8008-603: Was brought about with the introduction of a de facto standard written language as used in Eliot's translation of the Bible and several primers and catechisms used to teach literacy, were produced with the aid of Native American translators, editors and interpreters from Natick, and was based on its speech. The employment of numerous literate Native Americans across Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies' Praying towns, many from Natick or had studied there for some time, helped elevate

8099-405: Was mostly English in vocabulary, but included numerous loan words, grammar features and calques of Massachusett Pidgin. Amongst the Native Americans, it co-existed with the use of the 'standard' Massachusett language, local speech and other dialects or languages, Massachusett Pidin and English. As the Native Americans began a quick process of language shift at the end of the eighteenth century, it

8190-493: Was recorded as 'Asacancomi c in the older colonial sources. This 'correction' stops at the Connecticut River, as most place names from areas associated with Mahican, such as Hoos ic , Housaton ic , Mahkeen ak , Quass uck and Mananos ick and Pocomtuc examples such as Podat uck , Pocumt uck , Suns ick , Norwott uck and Pachass ic noticeably lack this feature. Nevertheless, because of the wide dialectal variation,

8281-539: Was the site of the first fully integrated textile factory in America, built by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814, and by the 19th century the Charles River was one of the most industrialized areas in the United States. Its hydropower soon fueled many mills and factories. By the century's end, 20 dams had been built across the river, mostly to generate power for industry. An 1875 government report listed 43 mills along

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