Laurentisch

Laurentian is an extinct language or group of related languages ​​of the Iroquois language family that was spoken on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River in the provinces of Ontario and Québec in Canada until the 16th century .

history

The French explorer Jacques Cartier met Indian tribes settling on the Saint Lawrence River in 1535 and 1536 and wrote down a few short lists of words from their language. Because of the name of the river, the language is commonly called Laurentian. When the first French settlers re-entered the area around 75 years later, the tribes had disappeared without a trace. The reasons for this are not entirely clear. With the disappearance of the tribes, Cartier's records are the only sources on the language.

classification

Although Cartier's records provide very limited material, the language can be clearly identified as the Iroquois language . From today's scientific point of view, the quality of these records is insufficient to enable an exact classification of the language to the Iroquois languages ​​still spoken today and to determine the exact characteristics of their grammar . It is also unclear whether the words Cartier collected are material from a single homogeneous language or a dialect continuum . Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that Laurentisch was actually a number of related but different languages.

literature

• Mithun, Marianne (1981): "The Mystery of the Vanished Laurentians." In: Anders Ahlquist (ed.): Papers from the 5th International Congress on Historial Linguistics , 230–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamin.