View source for Laurentian language

{{Short description|Extinct branch of the Iroquoian language family}}
{{for|the variety of the French language spoken in Canada|Canadian French}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}
{{Citation style|date=August 2020}}
}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Laurentian
| nativename       = 
| states           = [[Canada]]
| region           = [[Saint Lawrence River]] Valley
| extinct          = late 16th century
| familycolor      = American
| fam1             = [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]
| fam2             = Northern?
| iso3             = lre
| glotto           = laur1250
| glottorefname    = Laurentian
| linglist         = lre
| map              = Iroquoiens St Laurent.png
| mapcaption       = Territory occupied by the St. Lawrence Iroquois, circa 1535
| ethnicity        = [[St. Lawrence Iroquoians]]
}}

{{Indigenous Peoples of Canada}}

'''Laurentian''', or '''St. Lawrence Iroquoian''', was an [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian language]] spoken until the late 16th century along the shores of the [[Saint Lawrence River]] in present-day [[Quebec]] and [[Ontario]], Canada. It is believed to have disappeared with the extinction of the [[St. Lawrence Iroquoians]], likely as a result of warfare by the more powerful [[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]] from the ''[[Haudenosaunee]]'' or [[Iroquois Confederacy]] to the south, in present-day [[New York (state)|New York]] state of the United States.

==History==
{{main|St. Lawrence Iroquoians}}
The explorer [[Jacques Cartier]] observed in 1535 and 1536 about a dozen villages in the valley between [[Stadacona]] and [[Hochelega (village)|Hochelega]], the sites of the modern cities of [[Quebec City]] and [[Montreal]].<ref>Jacques Cartier. (1545). ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12356/12356-h/12356-h.htm Relation originale de Jacques Cartier]''. Paris: Tross (1863 edition)</ref> Archeologists have unearthed other villages farther west, near the eastern end of [[Lake Ontario]]. St. Lawrence Iroquoians lived in villages which were usually located a few kilometres (miles) inland from the Saint-Lawrence River, and were often enclosed by a wooden palisade. Up to 2000 persons lived in the larger villages.

By the time the explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]] arrived in 1608, however, he found no trace of the Iroquoians visited by Jacques Cartier some 75 years earlier.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199801/ai_n8760719/ James F. Pendergast. (1998). "The Confusing Identities Attributed to Stadacona and Hochelaga"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812060936/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199801/ai_n8760719/ |date=2014-08-12 }}, ''Journal of Canadian Studies'', Volume 32, p. 149, accessed 3 Feb 2010</ref> Scholars have developed several theories to explain the complete disappearance of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, among them devastating wars waged by the [[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]] from the south, [[epidemics]] of Old World [[infectious diseases]], or migration towards the [[Great Lakes]] region. [[Archeological]] evidence points most strongly to devastating wars with neighbouring Iroquoian tribes, the [[Wyandot people|Huron]] and the nations of the [[Iroquois League]], especially the Mohawk.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=T3NQ1lsaHs0C&dq=The+Disappearance+of+the+St.+Lawrence+Iroquoians&pg=PA214 Bruce G. Trigger, "The Disappearance of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians"], in ''The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660'', vol. 2], Montreal and London: Mcgill-Queen's University Press, 1976, pp. 214-218, 220-224, accessed 2 Feb 2010</ref>

==Classification==
Several dialects of Laurentian may have existed in the 16th century in the St. Lawrence River valley. The sparse records made by Jacques Cartier during his voyages cannot be considered conclusive, and the Laurentians may have spoken several distinct languages.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199801/ai_n8760719/ James F. Pendergast. (1998). "The Confusing Identities Attributed to Stadacona and Hochelaga"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812060936/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199801/ai_n8760719/ |date=2014-08-12 }}, ''Journal of Canadian Studies'', Volume 32, pp. 156-157, accessed 3 Feb 2010</ref> A few Laurentian words are still in use today as [[toponyms]]: most notably the word {{lang|lre|canada}}, meaning "village" in Laurentian. Jacques Cartier used the word to describe both the region and the [[Saint Lawrence River|river]] that crosses it. The name of [[Donnacona]], the Iroquoian chieftain Cartier met at Stadacona, remains in use as the name of the town of [[Donnacona, Quebec|Donnacona]], Quebec. Hochelaga remains in use in the [[Montreal]] borough of [[Hochelaga-Maisonneuve]] and the alternate spelling "Osheaga" serves as the name of Montreal's annual [[Osheaga Festival]].

On the basis of the Laurentian vocabularies of Cartier, the linguist [[Marianne Mithun]] concludes that Laurentian was an Iroquoian language, and its speakers were "clearly in contact with the Lake Iroquoian peoples [Huron and Iroquois]" (Mithun, 1981). Charles Julian analyzed the available lexicon and compared it with those of Iroquoian languages still spoken in the 21st century and found that it shared the highest number of [[Cognate|cognates]] with [[Wyandot language|Huron]], [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]], and [[Onondaga language|Onondaga]], with 47 cognates found for all three. Many sound changes are found in common with Huron such as the reduction of [[Consonant cluster|consonant clusters]] containing [[Voiced palatal approximant|/j/]], however Laurentian also shares features with other Northern Iroquoian languages that Huron lacks. For example Laurentian shows the existence of an [[Epenthesis|epenthetic]] vowel like found in [[Susquehannock language|Susquehannock]], Old Mohawk and, Old Onondaga but not in Huron. Because of this he concludes that Laurentian forms its own subgroup within Northern Iroquoian.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Julian |first=Charles |title=A History of Iroquoian Languages |date=2010 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Manitoba |url=https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/6b2df4a6-c15a-4d2d-8042-a189bf638df4/content |chapter=}}</ref>

==Phonology==
{{IPA notice|section}}
The presumed<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Julian |first=Charles |title=A History of Iroquoian Languages |date=2010 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Manitoba |page=189| url=https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR70314&op=pdf&app=Library&is_thesis=1&oclc_number=811405083#page=211.09}}</ref> phoneme inventory of Laurentian is as follows (using the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]).

===Consonants===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Palato-alveolar consonant|Palato-alveolar]] / [[Palatal|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|n}}
| || ||
|-
! [[Stop consonant|Plosive]] / [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]] 
| {{IPA link|t}} {{IPA link|ts}}
|
| {{IPA link|k}} {{IPA link|kʷ}}
| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
! [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
|
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|ɹ}}
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|}
Julian describes Laurentian /t/ and /k/ as having voiced allophones [d] and [g] between vowels or between a vowel and approximant or nasal consonant. Likewise, /ts/ may have voiced to [dz] or [dʒ] between vowels or voiced consonants. The /w/ seems to have been pronounced [m] before a nasal vowel. The /ɹ/ may have been pronounced as a lateral in some words. 

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[Close vowel|High]]
|{{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|iː}}
|
|
|-
![[Close-mid vowel|Mid]], [[Nasal vowel|nasalized]]
|{{IPA link|ẽ}} {{IPA link|ẽː}}
|
|{{IPA link|õ}} {{IPA link|õː}}
|-
![[Close-mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPA link|e}} {{IPA link|eː}}
|
|{{IPA link|o}} {{IPA link|oː}}
|-
![[Open vowel|Low]]
|
|{{IPA link|a|}} {{IPA link|aː}}
|
|}
An [[Epenthesis|epenthetic vowel]] was in some cases pronounced between sequences of consonants in which one was an approximant or nasal.

==Vocabulary==
In 1545 Jacques Cartier published a journal of his voyages, including the first list of Laurentian words. Here are some examples (numbers and parts of the human body), as written by Cartier:

{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 frame=void rules=rows 
|- valign=bottom style="border-bottom: 3px double #999;"
! English<br>(from French)&nbsp;&nbsp;
! Laurentian
|- valign=top style="border-bottom:1px solid #999;"
| one
| {{lang|lre|segada}}
|-
| two
| {{lang|lre|tigneny}}
|-
| three
| {{lang|lre|asche}}
|-
| four
| {{lang|lre|honnacon}}
|-
| five
| {{lang|lre|ouiscon}}
|-
| head
| {{lang|lre|aggourzy}}
|-
| eyes
| {{lang|lre|hegata}}
|-
| ears
| {{lang|lre|ahontascon}}
|-
| mouth
| {{lang|lre|escahe}}
|-
| teeth
| {{lang|lre|esgougay}}
|-
| tongue
| {{lang|lre|osvache}}
|-
| village
| {{lang|lre|canada}}
|-
| 
| 
|}

A second shorter vocabulary list was appended to his journal of his first voyage, which was published much later, first in Italian and later in English and French.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
*Jacques Cartier. (1545). ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12356/12356-h/12356-h.htm Relation originale de Jacques Cartier]''. Paris: Tross (1863 edition). (Vocabulary list on pages 46 to 48)
*[[Floyd Lounsbury|Floyd G. Lounsbury]]. (1978). "Iroquoian Languages," ''Handbook of North American Indians''. Volume 15. Pages 334-343.
*Juan Francisco Maura. (2009). "Nuevas aportaciones al estudio de la toponimia ibérica en la América Septentrional en el siglo XVI". ''Bulletin of Spanish Studies'' 86. 5 (2009): 577-603.
*Marianne Mithun. (1979). "Iroquoian," in Lyle Campbell and Marianne Mithun, ''The Languages of Native America''. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pages 140-141. ("Laurentian")
*Marianne Mithun. (1981). The Mystery of the Vanished Laurentians, in Papers from the 5th International Congress on Historical Linguistics (Anders Ahlquist, ed.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pages 230-242.
*Marianne Mithun. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-23228-7}} (hbk); {{ISBN|0-521-29875-X}}.
*James F. Pendergast. (1998). "The Confusing Identities Attributed to Stadacona and Hochelaga", ''Journal of Canadian Studies''. Volume 32. Pages 149-167.
*Bruce G. Trigger and James F. Pendergast. (1978). "Saint Lawrence Iroquoians", ''Handbook of North American Indians''. Volume 15. Pages 357-361.
*Bruce G. Trigger. (1976). ''The Children of Aataentsic: a History of the Huron People to 1660''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press. pp.&nbsp;214–228. ("The Disappearance of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians")
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.native-languages.org/laurentian.htm List of Web sites on the Laurentian language] (Native Languages of the Americas Online Resources)
*[http://www.native-languages.org/laurentian_words.htm Laurentian words]

{{Iroquoian languages}}
[[Category:Iroquoian languages]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of North America]]
[[Category:First Nations languages in Canada]]
[[Category:First Nations history in Ontario]]
[[Category:First Nations history in Quebec]]
[[Category:Native American history of New York (state)]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 16th century]]
[[Category:16th-century disestablishments in North America]]