Native American languages Native American tribes What's new on our site today! Native Languages of the Americas: Abenaki (Abanaki, Abenakis, Alnombak) Language: Abnaki, or Western Abenaki, is an Algonquian language spoken today by only a few elders in Canada. Native speakers call their language Alnombak, Aln´bak, or Aln8bak (the 8 was a Jesuit symbol for a nasalized, unrounded 'o'.) Penobscot or Eastern Abenaki, a dialect mutually comprehensible with Western Abenaki, was once spoken in Maine. Sadly, the last fully fluent speaker of Penobscot Abenaki has passed on, but several elders know something of the language and are working to revive the language in the Penobscot Nation today. People: The Abenaki tribe, together with the Maliseet Passamaquoddy Mi'kmaq , and Penobscot Indians , were members of the old Wabanaki Confederacy , adversaries of the Iroquois . These allies from the eastern seaboard spoke related languages, and Abenaki and Wabanaki have the same Algonquian root, meaning "people from the east." (The original Abenaki name for their specific tribe is Alnombak , "the people.") Today there are 2000 Abenaki Indians living on two reserves in Quebec, where they fled from British aggression in the 1600's, and another 10,000 descendants scattered throughout New England. The Abenaki tribe is only officially recognized in Canada, and only the Canadian population still speaks their ancestral language. | |
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