Mohegan-Pequot (also known as Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk, Secatogue, and Shinnecock-Poosepatuck) is an Algonquian language formerly spoken, and currently being reclaimed, by the Indigenous peoples of southern present-day New England and eastern Long Island.Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics Dialects in New England included Mohegan, Pequot, and Niantic; and on Long Island, Montaukett and Shinnecock.
History The language was documented as early as the 17th century."In 1690, a Pequot vocabulary list was compiled by Rev. James Noyes in Groton. In 1717, Experience Mayhew, a Congregational Minister translated the Lord's Prayer into Mohegan-Pequot. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University collected Pequot linguistic data in Groton in 1762."One of the key figures in the legacy of the Mohegan language is Samson Occom (1723–1792), an 18th-century Mohegan minister and scholar. Though his surviving works are primarily in English, Occom was fluent in Mohegan and is believed to have used the language in his preaching. In 2022, Dartmouth College formally repatriated Occom’s personal papers to the Mohegan Tribe.
Another important tribal member was Gladys Tantaquidgeon, who was the tribe's medicine woman from 1916 until her death in 2005. She too assisted greatly in maintaining the Mohegan culture, as she collected thousands of tribal documents and artifacts. These documents were of critical importance to supporting the tribe's documentation for its case for federal recognition, which was approved in 1994.
Revival As of 2024, there are approximately 2,400 enrolled Mohegan tribal members (these figures vary by source). The Mohegan language has not been spoken conversationally for approximately 100 years; the last native speaker, Dji's Butnaca (Flying Bird), known in English as Fidelia Fielding, died in 1908. However, it is currently in the process of active revitalization. Fielding, a descendant of Chief Uncas and a primary source on the language, left behind four diaries, now being used in the process of restoring the language. Many of the dictionaries circulating are based on John Dyneley Prince and Frank G. Speck's interpretation of testimony by Fielding. In addition to her written contributions, Fielding practiced a traditional Mohegan lifestyle and was the last person to live in the traditional log dwelling.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center collection includes a 1992 menu "which attempts to translate such words as hamburger and hot dog into Mohegan-Pequot."
As of 2010, the Shinnecock and Unkechaug nations of Long Island, New York, had begun work with the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Southampton Campus, to revive their languages, or dialects of the above.
By 2012, the Mohegan Language Project had created lessons, a dictionary, and other online learning materials to revive their language. The project also has a complete grammar in the works, which has been put together by Stephanie Fielding. The primary goal of the project is for the next generation of Mohegan people to be fluent.
Prayers from the Baháʼí Faith have been translated into the Mohegan-Pequot language.
"It is a sacred obligation," says the Golden Hill Paugussett Chief, Big Eagle. "Indian people must keep their languages alive. If the language is not spoken, it must be made to live again."
Phonology Consonants +Mohegan-Pequot consonant phonemes Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Glottal plain lab. Nasal (m) (n) Stop (p) (t) (k) (q) Affricate (c) Fricative (s) (sh) (h) Approximant (y) (w)
is realized as before .
Vowels
Simple vowels Front Central Back Close (i) (o) Mid (u) (ô) Open (a á)
The nasal vowel can range to an oral . written with an acute accent () represents a long vowel //.
Diphthongs Central Back Close Mid Open
Orthography Mohegan-Pequot was traditionally an oral language with no standardized writing system. The language was passed down entirely through spoken word. The only significant historic writings have been produced by European colonizers who interacted with the speakers of Mohegan-Pequot.
In the 21st century, as part of the revitalization effort, a practical orthography was created to represent the Mohegan language using the Latin alphabet. The foundational source for this work was the set of four phonetic diaries left behind by Fielding.
The dictionaries, grammar books, and other materials that are being developed in recent decades as part of the effort to revitalize Mohegan-Pequot have adopted and used a standardized Latin orthography consisting of twelve consonants and six vowels.
+ ConsonantsSoundPhoneticMohegan-Pequot examplesGlossEnglish equivalent c ~ 'I want' beach h 'Mohegan, Mohegan Indian' hi k ~ 'cloud' geese, ski m 'cranberry' man n 'five' name p ~ 'ten' spit q ~ 'It is cold''fish' queen s ~ beginning of a word between two vowels ~ in clusters sk, sp, sq 'two''board, floorboard' miss sh 'eel''legend, myth' shoreline t ~ 'God' do, stop w 'hill, mountain' weasel y 'I call him' mayor
+ VowelsSoundPhoneticMohegan-Pequot examplesGlossEnglish equivalent a ~ 'land, Earth' handle á 'four' father i ~ 'bad, wicked' pin o ~ 'I make a fire' obey, book ô ~ 'porcupine' bonbon u 'third' cut
Morphology
Nouns Nouns in Mohegan have two forms: animate and inanimate. They are further distinguished by number. Animate nouns include people, animals, heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars, but not clouds), and spirits. There are other items that fall into the category of animate such as certain cultural items and plants, but it is not known why these items are considered animate. It is something that is simply learned and memorized. One way to help identify if a noun is animate or inanimate is to look at its plural form. Plural animate nouns typically end in -k while plural inanimate nouns end in -sh.
Animate nouns have four forms: singular, plural, obviative and locative. The obviate form is used when there are two or more animate third person nouns in a sentence to mark the noun which is less salient (less relevant to the discourse). The unmarked noun is called the proximate, which is more salient/relevant to the discourse. The obviative is also used to mark a third-person possessed noun, with the possessor considered as the proximate, even if the possessed noun is more salient than its possessor. The locative is used to show where something is spatially. There is no obviative form for inanimate nouns, and neither the obviative nor the locative have plural forms (plurality is known through context).Fielding, Stephanie (2006), A Modern Mohegan Dictionary 2006 Ed.
Animate Nouns (with regular stems) Mohegan FormEnglish Translation Singular old woman Plural old women Obviative old woman/women Locative at the old woman/women
Inanimate Nouns (with regular stems) Mohegan FormEnglish Translation Singular hill Plural hills Locative at the hill/on the hill
Verbs
Verbs in Mohegan come in several forms. Independent verbs exist in four forms: inanimate intransitive, animate intransitive, transitive inanimate and transitive animate. There is also the conjunct form which does not carry the affixes (used to clarify person) that the aforementioned hold.
Person, number and gender
Person
Mohegan animate intransitive verbs show who the subject is by utilizing affixes. Singular forms have prefixes, but third person (singular and plural) only have suffixes. In the plural forms there are inclusive and exclusive suffixes; the inclusive we includes the person who is speaking as well as the person they are talking to whereas the exclusive we does not include the person the speaker is talking to. When an animate intransitive verb stem ends in a long vowel (á, i, o or ô) the third person singular does not take a final -w, and in the third person plural these same verbs take -k as an ending in lieu of - wak.
+ Independent Verbs (animate intransitive) Person Mohegan English Translation 1st person singular I steal 2nd person singular you steal 3rd person singular he/she steals 3rd person obviative he/she (obviative) steals 1st person plural exclusive we (I and he/she) steal 1st person plural inclusive we (I and you) steal 2nd person plural you (more than one) steal 3rd person plural they steal *affixes indicated in bold type
+ Independent Verbs (animate intransitive w/long vowel ending) Person Mohegan English Translation 1st person singular I breathe 2nd person singular you breathe 3rd person singular he/she breathes 3rd person obviative they (obviative) breathe 1st person plural exclusive we (I and he/she) breathe 1st person plural inclusive we (I and you) breathe 2nd person plural you (more than one) breathe 3rd person plural they breathe *affixes indicated in bold type
Numbers
Cardinal Ordinal one first two second three third four fourth five fifth six sixth seven seventh eight eighth nine ninth ten tenth
Space
Locative case
The locative case is used to show where something is. Mohegan utilizes the suffix -uk to indicate spatial relationships, which can be compared to the English prepositions on, at, and in. In Mohegan there is no plural form to go with the obviative and the locative: the same form is used for singular and plural with the difference being distinguished by context. Mohegan English Translation house houses in the house/houses
Absentative case
The absentative case is used to when referencing a person who has died (this includes any property that they left behind). This is accomplished by adding a suffix to either his/her name, title or the property.
+ Absentative Mohegan English Translation singular my late grandfather plural my late grandfathers obviative singular his late grandfather obviative plural his late grandfathers departed's possession singular my late father's boat departed's possessions plural my late father's boats *suffix indicated by bold type
The following example shows the absentative case in use:
'Both of my late uncles enjoyed cooking.'
Syntax
Possession
In Mohegan, there are two types of possession, alienable possession and inalienable possession. Nouns receive different marking depending on the relationship between the possessor and the possessed noun. If the possessed noun is connected (physically or sometimes metaphorically) to the possessed noun it is considered inalienable possession. For example in the phrase "the man's hand", the hand is possessed inalienably because it is inseparable from the man. Inalienable possession can also be metaphorical; for example, in the phrase "the man's mother", the mother is possessed inalienably because of a cultural perception of kinship as a "strong" connection. Inalienable nouns must always receive marking. If the possessor owns the possessed noun, but is not physically attached to it, it is considered alienable possession. In the phrase "the man's house", the house is possessed alienably because the house is not attached to the man.
Nouns pertaining to kinship and body parts are always classified as inalienable, but there are some terms that do not fall under either of these umbrellas that must be classified as inalienable, such as the noun home. Various affixes are used to denote inalienability and different affixes are used to differentiate animate/inanimate and singular/plural. Additionally, when a term requires possession but the possessor is unclear or unknown it is marked with a prefix that indicates an indefinite possessor.
The language also distinguishes between different forms of the first-person plural, separating inclusive ("we" including the person being addressed) from exclusive ("we" excluding the person being addressed). These distinctions are marked through specific combinations of affixes.