The Weapemeoc Indians were a small Native American tribe from northeastern North Carolina . They lived on the north shore of Albemarle Sound . that was first noted in literature in 1585/1586. At that time, they approximately had 700 to 800 people. They had a maritime culture. However, their culture changed rapidly as European settlers introduced diseases and ultimately forced them from their lands by 1780.
38-569: The original meaning of Weapemeoc has been translated as "where shelter from the wind is sought". Swanton suggested it translated as "People of the First Light," or "People of the Dawn Land," similar to Wabanaki or Wampanoag . The tribe was also commonly referred to as Yeopim as a shortened alternative. This alternative name may have been created by settlers mispronouncing the tribe's name. Many subdivisions, each individually named, comprised
76-449: A noun, that it must be a purely linguistic characterization. Anthropological linguists have conversely argued the strong connection between animacy and items viewed as having spiritual importance. Another important distinction involves the contrast between nouns marked as proximate and those marked as obviative . Proximate nouns are those deemed most central or important to the discourse, while obviative nouns are those less important to
114-459: A single word. Ex: ( Menominee ) paehtāwāēwesew "He is heard by higher powers" ( paeht - 'hear', - āwāē - 'spirit', - wese - passivizer, - w third-person subject) or ( Plains Cree ) kāstāhikoyahk "it frightens us". These languages have been extensively studied by Leonard Bloomfield , Ives Goddard , and others. Algonquian nouns have an animate/inanimate contrast: some nouns are classed as animate , while all other nouns are inanimate . There
152-524: A storm, the Weapemeoc Indians would throw tobacco and other herbs into the water in hopes of a resolution. However, this maritime culture began to fade with European encroachment. Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( / æ l ˈ ɡ ɒ ŋ k ( w ) i ə n / al- GONG -k(w)ee-ən ; also Algonkian ) are a family of Indigenous languages of the Americas and most of
190-501: A thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now extinct . The Indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other; instead, they are classified into a hundred or so language families and isolates , as well as a number of extinct languages that are unclassified due to the lack of information on them. Many proposals have been made to relate some or all of these languages to each other, with varying degrees of success. The most widely reported
228-851: Is Joseph Greenberg 's Amerind hypothesis, which, however, nearly all specialists reject because of severe methodological flaws; spurious data; and a failure to distinguish cognation , contact , and coincidence. According to UNESCO , most of the Indigenous languages of the Americas are critically endangered, and many are dormant (without native speakers but with a community of heritage-language users) or entirely extinct. The most widely spoken Indigenous languages are Southern Quechua (spoken primarily in southern Peru and Bolivia) and Guarani (centered in Paraguay, where it shares national language status with Spanish), with perhaps six or seven million speakers apiece (including many of European descent in
266-693: Is compatible with the proposal from J.P. Denny (1991) that Proto-Algonquian people may have moved east from the Plateau region of Idaho and Oregon or the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains boundary of Montana , dropping off subgroups as people migrated. Goddard also points out that there is clear evidence for pre-historical contact between Eastern Algonquian and Cree-Montagnais, as well as between Cheyenne and Arapaho–Gros Ventre. There has long been especially extensive back-and-forth influence between Cree and Ojibwe. It has been suggested that
304-604: Is limited to certain regions where the languages are most spoken. Although sometimes enshrined in constitutions as official, the languages may be used infrequently in de facto official use. Examples are Quechua in Peru and Aymara in Bolivia, where in practice, Spanish is dominant in all formal contexts. In the North American Arctic region, Greenland in 2009 elected Kalaallisut as its sole official language. In
342-482: Is now northeastern North Carolina. In the early 1580s they experienced a dramatic cultural shift with the arrival of European colonizers. The English established a two-year settlement from 1584 to 1586, and subsequent settlements were established by Spanish, Portuguese and French explorers. The minimal, initial interactions between Weapemeoc and settlers were limited to the shoreline. However, these interactions eventually resulted in conflict with European efforts to displace
380-405: Is ongoing debate over whether there is a semantic significance to the categorization of nouns as animate or inanimate, with scholars arguing for it as either a clearly semantic issue, or a purely syntactic issue, along with a variety of arguments in between. More structurally inclined linguistic scholars have argued that since there is no consistent semantic system for determining the animacy of
418-678: Is sometimes said to have included the extinct Beothuk language of Newfoundland , whose speakers were both in geographic proximity to Algonquian speakers and who share DNA in common with the Algonquian-speaking Miꞌkmaq . However, linguistic evidence is scarce and poorly recorded, and it is unlikely that reliable evidence of a connection can be found. The Algonquian language family is known for its complex polysynthetic morphology and sophisticated verb system. Statements that take many words to say in English can be expressed with
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#1732780508344456-686: The Central Algonquian groups are not genetic groupings but rather areal groupings. Although these areal groups often do share linguistic features, these commonalities are usually attributed to language contact . Paul Proulx has argued that this traditional view is incorrect, and that Central Algonquian (in which he includes the Plains Algonquian languages) is a genetic subgroup, with Eastern Algonquian consisting of several different subgroups. However, this classification scheme has failed to gain acceptance from other specialists in
494-658: The Indian Massacre of 1622 . Three years later in 1625, a smallpox and measles outbreak killed many Native Indians who did not have natural immunity to such illnesses. In 1650, European presence increased as more and more settlers arrived in North Carolina. With such large numbers of men arriving, the male to female ratio in the Albemarle region of North Carolina was close to 8 to 1. In 1670, British men began marrying local Native American women. This encouraged
532-518: The Quechuan languages , Aymara , Guarani , and Nahuatl , which had millions of active speakers, to many languages with only several hundred speakers. After pre-Columbian times, several Indigenous creole languages developed in the Americas, based on European, Indigenous and African languages. The European colonizing nations and their successor states had widely varying attitudes towards Native American languages. In Brazil, friars learned and promoted
570-787: The Tupi language . In many Spanish colonies, Spanish missionaries often learned local languages and culture in order to preach to the natives in their own tongue and relate the Christian message to their Indigenous religions. In the British American colonies, John Eliot of the Massachusetts Bay Colony translated the Bible into the Massachusett language , also called Wampanoag, or Natick (1661–1663); he published
608-489: The "Eastern Great Lakes" languages – what Goddard has called "Core Central", e.g., Ojibwe–Potawatomi, Shawnee, Sauk–Fox–Kickapoo, and Miami-Illinois (but not Cree–Montagnais or Menominee) – may also constitute their own genetic grouping within Algonquian. They share certain intriguing lexical and phonological innovations. However, this theory has not yet been fully fleshed out and is still considered conjectural. Algonquian
646-561: The 11th century (with the Nordic settlement of Greenland and failed efforts in Newfoundland and Labrador ) and the end of the 15th century (the voyages of Christopher Columbus ). Several Indigenous cultures of the Americas had also developed their own writing systems , the best known being the Maya script . The Indigenous languages of the Americas had widely varying demographics, from
684-461: The 2010 census. In Canada, 133,000 people reported speaking an Indigenous language at home in the 2011 census. In Greenland, about 90% of the population speaks Greenlandic , the most widely spoken Eskaleut language . Over a thousand known languages were spoken by various peoples in North and South America prior to their first contact with Europeans. These encounters occurred between the beginning of
722-710: The Algonquian languages is their direct-inverse (also known as hierarchical ) morphosyntactic alignment , distinguishing between an unmarked voice where the subject outranks the object in a person hierarchy and a marked voice where the opposite relation obtains. Because Algonquian languages were some of the first with which Europeans came into contact in North America, the language family has given many words to English . Many eastern and midwestern U.S. states have names of Algonquian origin ( Massachusetts , Connecticut , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , etc.), as do many cities: Milwaukee , Chicago , et al. Ottawa ,
760-450: The Algonquian languages. Instead, the commonly accepted subgrouping scheme is that proposed by Ives Goddard (1994). The essence of this proposal is that Proto-Algonquian originated with people to the west who then moved east, although Goddard did not attempt to identify a specific western urheimat for Proto-Algonquian in his 1994 paper. By this scenario, Blackfoot was the first language to branch off, which coincides well with its being
798-489: The Americas by European settlers and administrators, had become the official or national languages of modern nation-states of the Americas. Many Indigenous languages have become critically endangered, but others are vigorous and part of daily life for millions of people. Several Indigenous languages have been given official status in the countries where they occur, such as Guaraní in Paraguay . In other cases official status
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#1732780508344836-1166: The Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages. The first Commissioner of Indigenous languages in Canada is Ronald E. Ignace . Colombia Colombia delegates local Indigenous language recognition to the department level according to the Colombian Constitution of 1991 . Bolivia Corrientes , Argentina Tacuru , Mato Grosso do Sul , Brazil Mercosur Peru (Official Language) Jujuy , Argentina Comunidad Andina Peru (Official Language) Comunidad Andina Belize Mexico Mexico Belize Mexico Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (De facto), Mexico Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (De facto), Mexico Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (De facto), Mexico Colombia ( Cauca , Nariño , Putumayo ) La Guajira , Colombia Mexico Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (De facto) , Mexico Mexico Honduras ( Gracias
874-669: The United States, the Navajo language is the most spoken Native American language, with more than 200,000 speakers in the Southwestern United States . The US Marine Corps recruited Navajo men, who were established as code talkers during World War II. In American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America (1997), Lyle Campbell lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages. Roger Blench (2008) has advocated
912-691: The Weapemeoc Indian tribes were at peace with surrounding tribes and alliances were common. From 1585 to 1586, a map was drawn of Weapemeoc territory along the coastline and rivers. In 1607, the James River area became the battleground between the Weapemeoc Nation, the Powhatan Confederacy and tributary nations. In 1622, battles continued between neighboring tribes and English settlers. This eventually became known as
950-626: The capital of Canada , is named after the Algonquian nation, the Odawa people . For a more detailed treatment of geographical names in three Algonquian languages, see the external link to the book by Trumbull. Indigenous languages of the Americas The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples . Over
988-489: The case of Guarani). Only half a dozen others have more than a million speakers; these are Aymara of Bolivia and Nahuatl of Mexico, with almost two million each; the Mayan languages Kekchi , Quiché , and Yucatec of Guatemala and Mexico, with about 1 million apiece; and perhaps one or two additional Quechuan languages in Peru and Ecuador. In the United States, 372,000 people reported speaking an Indigenous language at home in
1026-491: The discourse. There are personal pronouns which distinguish three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), inclusive and exclusive first person plural , and proximate and obviative third persons. Verbs are divided into four classes: transitive verbs with an animate object (abbreviated "TA"), transitive verbs with an inanimate object ("TI"), intransitive verbs with an animate subject ("AI"), and intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject ("II"). A very notable feature of
1064-482: The east coast of North America to the Rocky Mountains . The proto-language from which all of the languages of the family descend, Proto-Algonquian , was spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. There is no scholarly consensus about where this language was spoken. This subfamily of around 30 languages is divided into three groups according to geography: Plains , Central , and Eastern Algonquian . Of
1102-503: The exchange of cultures and prompted negotiations to end the constant battles. During negotiations the battles continued and as a result the tribe's population dramatically decrease. By 1700, the Weapemeoc population was thought to only have been 200 people large. The tribe was completely surrounded by European settlers and peace did not continue. Many tribal members of the tribe moved to Indiantown . The Weapemeoc Indians lived in what
1140-552: The first Bible printed in North America, the Eliot Indian Bible . The Europeans also suppressed use of Indigenous languages, establishing their own languages for official communications, destroying texts in other languages, and insisted that Indigenous people learn European languages in schools. As a result, Indigenous languages suffered from cultural suppression and loss of speakers. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, brought to
1178-467: The lands formerly controlled by the Weapemeoc. The English established a reservation for the Yeopim in 1704, but the land was sold in 1739. But the mid-17th century, that "tribe had ceased to exist in any significant numbers in North Carolina." The Weapemeoc Indians spoke an Algonquian language . The Weapemeoc Indians were skilled hunters, farmers, and fishermen. As they lived close to banks and rivers,
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1216-687: The languages in the Algic language family are included in the group. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Indigenous Ojibwe language (Chippewa), which is a senior member of the Algonquian language family. The term Algonquin has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik ( pronounced [ɛlæˈɡomoɡwik] ), "they are our relatives/allies". Speakers of Algonquian languages stretch from
1254-480: The most divergent language of Algonquian. In west-to-east order, the subsequent branchings were: This historical reconstruction accords best with the observed levels of divergence within the family, whereby the most divergent languages are found furthest west (since they constitute the earliest branchings during eastern migration), and the shallowest subgroupings are found furthest to the east (Eastern Algonquian, and arguably Core Central). This general west-to-east order
1292-663: The theory of multiple migrations along the Pacific coast of peoples from northeastern Asia, who already spoke diverse languages. These proliferated in the New World. Countries like Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Guyana recognize most Indigenous languages. Bolivia and Venezuela give all Indigenous languages official status. Canada, Argentina, and the U.S. allow provinces and states to decide. Brazil limits recognition to localities. Canada Bill C-91, passed in 2019, supports Indigenous languages through sustainable funding and
1330-431: The three, only Eastern Algonquian constitutes a true genetic subgroup. The languages are listed following the classifications of Goddard (1996) and Mithun (1999). Extinct languages are marked with †, and endangered languages are noted as such. For dialects and subdialects, consult the separate main articles for each of the three divisions. Eastern Algonquian is a true genetic subgrouping. The Plains Algonquian and
1368-459: The tribe from their traditional maritime way of life. While some of the subdivisions of the tribe formed alliances with the settlers, others remained loyal to their traditional roots. Those who regularly interacted with the settlers exchanged their cultural ways of living. At the dawn of the 18th century, two other Algonquian language –speaking tribes, the Poteskeets and the Yeopim settled in
1406-435: The tribe had access to freshwater fish, clams, and mussels year-round. Their various fishing instruments ranged from spears, hooks, and nets. Their diets also consisted of seasonal crop such as corn and animals. they hunted by bow and arrow. Due to the importance of water in their daily lives, many religious rituals and beliefs revolved around maritime activities. For example, in the event of violent waters or potential signs of
1444-452: The tribe. The first written record of the Weapemeoc Indians was in 1585. During this time, they had approximately 700 to 800 people. Throughout their existence, they migrated across various North Carolinian counties such as Currituck , Pasquotank and Perquimans and Chowan . Despite their existence only first being noted in 1585, accounts shared by members of the Weapemeoc tribe have enabled historians to reconstruct their history. In 1550,
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