This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used - notably tta for Tutelo.See why.(September 2024)
Tutelo, also known as Tutelo–Saponi, is a member of the Virginian branch of Siouan languages that were originally spoken in what is now Virginia and West Virginia in the United States.
Most Tutelo speakers migrated north to escape warfare. They traveled through North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New York. In 1753, the Tutelo had joined the Iroquois Confederacy under the sponsorship of the Cayuga. They finally settled in Ontario after the American Revolutionary War at what is now known as Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation.
Nikonha, the last fluent speaker in Tutelo country, died in 1871 at age 106. The year before, he had managed to impart about 100 words of vocabulary to the ethnologist Horatio Hale, who had visited him at the Six Nations Reserve.[2][3]
Hale published a brief grammar and vocabulary in 1883 and confirmed the language as Siouan through comparisons with Dakota and Hidatsa.[2] His excitement was considerable to find an ancient Dakotan language, which was once widespread among inland tribes in Virginia, to have been preserved on a predominantly Iroquoian-speaking reserve in Ontario.[5] Previously, the only recorded information on the language had been a short list of words and phrases collected by Lieutenant John Fontaine at Fort Christanna in 1716, and a few assorted terms recorded by colonial sources, such as John Lederer, Abraham Wood, Hugh Jones, and William Byrd II.
Hale noted the testimony of colonial historian Robert Beverley, Jr. that the dialect of the Occaneechi, believed to be related to Tutelo, was used as a lingua franca by all the tribes in the region regardless of their first languages, and it was known to the chiefs, "conjurers," and priests of all tribes. These spiritual practitioners used it in their ceremonies, just as Roman Catholic priests in Europe and the US used Latin. Hale's grammar also noted further comparisons to Latin and Ancient Greek. He remarked on the classical nature of Tutelo's rich variety of verb tenses available to the speaker, including what he remarked as an "aorist" perfect verb tense, ending in "-wa".[2]
James Dorsey, another Siouan linguist, collected extensive vocabulary and grammar samples around the same time as Hale, as did Hewitt a few years later. Frachtenberg and Sapir both visited the Six Nations Ontario reserve in the first decade of the 1900s and found that only a few Cayuga of Tutelo ancestry remembered a handful of Tutelo words. Speck did much fieldwork to record and preserve their cultural traditions in the 1930s but found little of the speech remaining. Mithun managed to collect a handful of terms that were still remembered in 1980.[4]
The language as preserved by these efforts is now believed to have been mutually intelligible with, if not identical to, the speech of other Virginia Siouan groups in general, including the Monacan and Manahoac and Nahyssan confederacies, as well as the subdivisions of Occaneechi, Saponi, etc.
In 1996, Giulia Oliverio wrote A Grammar and Dictionary of Tutelo as her dissertation.[6] In 2021 the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages assisted Tutelo activists in building a Living Dictionary for Tutelo-Saponi Monacan.[7]
Phonology
Oliverio proposes the following analysis of the sound system of Tutelo:[8]
Independent personal pronouns, as recorded by Dorsey, are:
1st sing. - Mima (I)
2nd sing. - Yima (you)
3rd sing. - Ima (he, she, it)
The pronoun Huk "all" may be added to form the plurals Mimahuk "we" and Yimahuk "ye", and "they" is Imahese.
In verbal conjugations, the subject pronouns are represented by various prefixes and suffixes, usually as follows:
1st sing. - Ma- or Wa- (or -ma-, -wa-)
2nd sing. - Ya- (-ya-)
3rd sing. - (null; no affixes, simple verb)
1st plur. - Mank- or Wa'en- (prefix only)
2nd plur. - Ya- (-ya-) + -pui
3rd plur. - --hle, -hne.
An example as given by Hale is the verb Yandosteka "love", and the pronoun is between yando- and -steka:
Yandowasteka, I love
Yandoyasteka, you love
Yandosteka, he or she loves
Mankyandosteka, we love
Yandoyastekapui, ye love
Yandostekahnese, they love.
The last form includes the common additional tense suffix -se, which literally conveys the progressive tense. There are also 'stative' classes of verbs that take the 'passive' (oblique) pronoun affixes (mi- or wi-, yi- etc.) as subjects.
Additional tenses can be formed by the use of other suffixes including -ka (past), -ta (future), -wa (aorist or perfect), -kewa (past perfect), and -ma (perfect progressive). Rules for combining the suffixes with stems in final vowels are slightly complex.[4]
Recorded Nouns
The words, mostly coming from the three main documents composed by Hale, Frachtenberg & Sapir, have some amount of overlap.
Arm- hiçto, histo (likely histo)
Armband- gaksagiwago
Arrow- mañksii, mañkoi (likely ąñisi, with ma- prefix, my. Comparable to Biloxi)
Ashes- alapok (likely alapo, when compared to Ioway. Specifically pipe residue, or visible breath)
Cat- pus (borrowed from English), dalusgik (borrowed from Iroquois)
Cheek- uksteh
Cherry- yosañkrota
Chief- hoonthy (likely hoti or hooti. Comparable to Biloxi xidi)
Child- wakasik, wagotskai, niska
Chunkey- chenco (likely cąŋko)
Claw- oluskese
Cloud- maqosi
Club- yeheti
Coat- opockhe
Colt- tsongidayenk (likely cọŋkitąñe, little horse. Siouan languages have a suffix that turns nouns diminutive. Ioway's is -ąñe.)
Copper- penihei (from English Haypenny. Given fairly formulaic Native metal names & having the word for metal, most likely should be mąŋs acuti, red metal)
Cousin- mangida, ungida
Cow- mapayenk, mapain (likely mąŋpąñe, little buffalo)
Cranberry- hohnuñk (likely wrong word. Best comparable to Lakota Hoanunk, on the other side of. Not comparable to known words for Cranberry.)
Egg- mayink pos (likely wayįñi pus, partly taking from English)
Evening- oshitewa (tewa is also included in one of the words for boy, with the main word resembling wąñi- man. This word may mean "new night," which would make the other word "new man."
Eye- tasui, tasuye
Face- talukna, tarubna
False Face (Iroquois, Medicine Man/ Shaman)- wahokmei, wahukmi (likely waho wąñi, spirit man. NOTE- In Iroquois culture, the shaman and medicine man are the same thing, but it isn't the same in Siouan culture. This resembles the usual pattern for other Siouan words for shaman.)
Ford (water)- mony seep, moneshap (likely mone šepa, shallow/ level water. Compare to Lakota chapa.)
Forehead- tikai, pania minte
Fox- tohkai (likely toka)
Friend- witahe, witaqa
Frog- hemo (probably more specifically bullfrog. Many Siouan languages follow pattern of having unique word for bullfrog, but a general word for all other frog-like animals, which tends to be peška. This closely resembles the Mosopelea word for bullfrog, temu.
Ghost- wanuntci (likely wanųŋci. Comparable to words in other Siouan languages for ghost, soul and shadow)
Girl- wagatc, wakasik, woman
God (Christian)- eingyen, einga (possibly approximation of word English- ąñiole)
Goose- maneasan (likely wayįñi asąŋ, white bird)
Goose honk- cohunks (likely kahąŋkeš. Similar to Powhatan word for Goose, kahauge, which could be named after its sound. Siouan languages sometimes add an unnecessary -š suffix for emphasis.)
Grandfather- ekuni, higun, kukak
Grandmother- higun
Grass- sunktaki, muktagi, otoi (oto, green, probably usable, but not main word)
Gun- miñkte, mikta
Hail- noq
Hair- natonwe, nantoi, natoi
Hand- hag, haki, hak (likely haki)
Hat- lubus, kotubos, apato bokso
Head- pasuye, pasui (likely pasu)
Heart- yanti, tapi (likely yąŋti)
Horse- tsungide, tsongide (likely cọŋkitąŋ, big dog)
House- ati
Ice- nonhi, mingiratcah (likely nọŋxi)
Indian- wahtakai
Iron- mans, mas, masiqorak (likely mąŋs ihola, grey metal. Compare to Ho-Chunk for grey, hora.)
Shoes- handisonoi, angohlei, agore, agode, agohele (latter 3 are clearly trying to be the word English- likely ąñiole)
Shot (bullets)- mankey (poss. related to or same as word for arrow)
Shot bag (for carrying gun ammo)- miktoke
Sister- minek, tahañk, dawinak
Sky- mantoi, matoni, matoi (likely mąŋto, borrowed from Powhatan word for spirits)
Snake- wageni, moka (likely wakąŋ, comparable to Ho-Chunk)
Son- witeka, tekai, qutekai, tagutckai
Soup- wohe
Spring (season)- wehahempei, wehaehimpe, maste (likely weha, combined with nahąŋpe, day)
Squirrel- nistaqkai
Star- tabunitckai, tapninskai
Stockings- honis
Stone- histeki, nistek (resembles Algonquian words for warm, such as Lenape, keshtek. Probably right word, because it repeats in pipe and island, but not sure why)
A few words can be gleaned from a document by Kirtland, who gathered several Saponi names at an Iroquois settlement near Niagara Falls. Some of his translations were likely way off, but the names themselves are potentially useful.
Yanyahkeya- No Heart. (This is also a common Ioway/ Chiwere Siouan name, whom the Saponi had common ancestry with. Possibly a combination of heart, yąŋti, which has been doubled up on itself to give a vague sense of multiplicity- so yąŋyąŋti- and another word which would have to mean the same as Ioway ñiñe, be without.)
Washomene- Witchcraft. (Could be related to the Ioway word wašwehi, medicine man.)
Ono3egeneon- murdering
Ontehoghkau- Old Town
Haykawyenin- Treading on the Mountain
Mahlonguti
Kansoreakt
Porarah- Looking for Them
Nehqueksati- Ball
Keest- Ladle
Monack
Pekaraghka
A few other names were gleaned from other documents composed treaties.
Tawkeesokha
Nehawroose
Chawco
Mawseeunthey
Shurenough
Amaroleck
References
^Marianne Mithun, The Languages of Native North America
