A Key Into The Language Of America
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''A Key into the Language of America'' or ''An help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America called New England'' is a book written by
Roger Williams Roger Williams (March 1683) was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Pl ...
in 1643 describing the Native American languages in
New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
in the 17th century, largely Narragansett, an Algonquian language. The book is the first published colonial study of a Native American language in English.


History

Author Roger Williams was a
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
who was banished from
Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
and founded Providence Plantations which grew into the Colony of Rhode Island. He believed that the king had no right to grant title to Indian land without paying for it. He interacted extensively with the Narragansett and
Wampanoag The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and forme ...
tribes as a missionary, friend, and trader. He extolled some elements of Indian culture as superior to European culture, and he wrote a complementary poem at the end of each chapter within the book. According to J. Patrick Cesarini, Williams also published the book to rebut Massachusetts' distorted claims in '' New England's First Fruits'' (1643) about the first Indian conversions to Christianity (particularly that of Wequash Cooke, a
Pequot The Pequot ( ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut includin ...
in
Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...
) and to thereby halt Massachusetts Bay's claims to Rhode Island's territory. Williams' friend Gregory Dexter printed the book in
London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, and the publication brought Williams much public attention.


Notable words

The book helped to popularize and introduce numerous American Indian
loan words A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
into the English
lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
, including: * Moccasin *
Moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...
*
Papoose Papoose (from the Narragansett ''papoos'', meaning "child") is an American English word whose present meaning is "a Native American child" (regardless of tribe) or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of endearment, often in ...
*
Powwow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native Americans in the United States, Native American and First Nations in Canada, First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity fo ...
* Quahog * Squash (askutasquash) *
Squaw The English word squaw is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered derogatory, misogynist, and racist.King, C. Richard,De/Scribi ...
* SuccotashAllan A. Metcalf, The world in so many words: a country-by-country tour of words that have shaped our language (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 199

/ref>


See also

*'' The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience''


References


External links


''A key into the language of America''
by Roger Williams (Providence, 1936)
"Narragansett Grammar"
*'' A Key into the Language of America'' – digitization of a first edition copy held at the John Carter Brown Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Key Into The Language Of America 1643 books History books about the United States Linguistics books Rhode Island culture Eastern Algonquian languages Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands Works by Roger Williams