Loup is an extinct Algonquian language, or possibly group of languages, spoken in colonial New England. It was attested in a notebook titled Mots loups (literally translating to "wolf words"), compiled by Jean-Claude Mathevet, a priest who worked among Algonquian peoples, composing of 124 pages.[1]Loup ('Wolf') was a French colonial ethnographic term, and usage was inconsistent. In modern literature, it refers to two varieties, Loup A and Loup B.[2] The language of the Mots loups notebook is different from all other New England languages, and is believed to have been spoken by the Nipmuc.[1]
Attestation
Loup A, which is likely the language of the Nipmuck,[2] is principally attested from a word list recorded from refugees by the St. Francis mission to the Abenaki in Quebec. The descendants of these refugees became speakers of Western Abenaki in the eighteenth century. Loup B refers to a second word list, which shows extensive dialectal variation. This may not be a distinct language, but just notes on the speech of various New England Algonquian refugees in French missions.[3] According to Gustafson 2000, the geographical location and phonology of Loup rule out association with any other tribes except for the Nipmuck.[1]
The vowel sounds likely have the same phonetic quality as other southern New England Algonquian languages. The short vowels /ioea/ may represent the sounds as [ɪ], [ʊ], [ɛ,ə], and [ʌ], while the long vowels /iː/, /oː/, and /ã/ correspond to /i/, /o/, and /ã/.[1][4]
References
^ abcdGustafson, Holly Suzanne (2000). A Grammar of the Nipmuck Language(PDF). Deparament of Linguistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Archived from the original on April 13, 2017.
