Piscataway ( ) is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken by the Piscataway, a dominant

chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...

in southern

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

on the Western Shore of the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...

at time of contact with English settlers. Piscataway, also known as ''Conoy'' (from the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

for the tribe), is considered a dialect of Nanticoke. This designation is based on the scant evidence available for the Piscataway language. The Doeg tribe, then located in present-day

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several County (United States), counties and independent city (United States), independent cities in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. ...

, are also thought to have spoken a form of the same language. These dialects were intermediate between the Native American language

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

spoken to the north of this area (in present-day

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut) and the

Powhatan language Powhatan or Virginia Algonquian is an Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian languages. It was formerly spoken by the Powhatan people of tidewater Virginia. Following 1970s linguistic research by Frank Thomas Siebert, Jr., some of the l ...

, formerly spoken to the south, in what is now Tidewater Virginia.

Classification

Piscataway is classified as an Eastern Algonquian language: * Algic (42) ** Algonquian (40) *** Eastern Algonquian (12) **** Nanticoke-Conoy (2) ***** Nanticoke nt***** Piscataway sy

History

Piscataway is not spoken today, but records of the language still exist. According to ''The Languages of Native North America'', Piscataway, otherwise called Conoy (from the

name for the tribe), was a dialect of Nanticoke. This assignment depends on the insufficient number of accessible documents of both Piscataway and Nanticoke. It is identified with the Lenape dialects ( Unlachtigo, Unami, and Muncy; spoken in what is now called Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut), and is more closely connected to

Powhatan Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powh ...

, which was formerly spoken in the area of present-day Virginia. The first speakers lived on the western shore of the

, today part of Maryland. In particular, they occupied the range of the lower Potomac and Patuxent River seepages. " Potomac" is a Piscataway word () that translates to "where the goods are brought". The Jesuit evangelist Father Andrew White translated the Catholic catechism into the Piscataway language in 1610, and other English teachers gathered Piscataway language materials. The original copy is a five-page Roman Catholic instruction written in Piscataway; it is the main surviving record of the language. White also wrote a grammar dictionary, though it is now considered lost. A prominent speaker of Piscataway was Mary Kittamaquund, called the "

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...

of Maryland" due to her state as the daughter of a chieftain, marriage to an English settler and diplomatic ability. The

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

Mitsitam Native Foods Café is named after the Piscataway and

term for 'let's eat'. Similarly the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

named a dining hall Yahentamitsi, which translates to 'a place to go to eat'.

Phonology

This section gives the phoneme inventory as reconstructed by Mackie (2006). * A mid sound [] may have also been present.

Notes

References

* Mackie, Lisa (2006).
Fragments of Piscataway: A Preliminary Description
''
OLAC resources in and about the Piscataway language

A section of a catechism, probably in the Piscataway language
written by Andrew White, S.J.
Nanticoke Language [archive
/nowiki>">rchive">Nanticoke Language [archive
/nowiki>
Fragments of Piscataway: A Preliminary Description

* http://www.ethnologue.com/language/psy {{Native Americans in Maryland Eastern Algonquian languages">ethnologue:psy">http://www.ethnologue.com/language/psy {{Native Americans in Maryland Eastern Algonquian languages Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands Extinct languages of North America Piscataway Indigenous languages of Maryland