A Vocabulary of Mohegan-Pequot (American Language Reprints) [Hardcover]

John Dyneley Prince (Author), Frank Speck (Author)

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Text: English

Product Details

• Hardcover: 81 pages
• Publisher: Evolution Publishing & Manufacturing (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889758027
• ISBN-13: 978-1889758022
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,939,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and interesting, September 1, 2002

By 

absent_minded_prof (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Vocabulary of Mohegan-Pequot (American Language Reprints) (Hardcover)

This interesting dictionary was compiled almost entirely from the diaries of the last speaker of Mohegan Pequot, a Mohegan woman named Fidelia Fielding, who passed away in 1908. It's quite short -- only 42 pages of vocabulary, with approximately ten words per page. The main dictionary is followed by a single page of vocabulary from the "Brothertown Mohegans" of Wisconsin, who moved to Wisconsin in the 1800s.

For anyone who doesn't know this, let me just explicitly note right here that the Mohegans are completely different from the Mohicans. To help you keep things straight, the word "Mohegan" is basically ALWAYS spelled the same way. Any time you see a spelling like Mohican, Mochican, Mahican, or...Muhhekaneew, those words refer to a totally, absolutely, completely separate tribe, which formerly lived in western Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and also in New York. That tribe is also sometimes called the Stockbridge Indians. Confusingly enough, like the Brothertown Mohegans, the Mohicans/Mahicans/Mochicans/Muhhekaneew/Stockbridge indians now live in Wisconsin, but they are still distinct from Wisconsin's Brothertown Mohegans. Are you baffled? Bemused? Befogged and bewildered? Well, welcome to the club.

I felt that the above note would be useful here, to straighten things out a little, or at least to acknowledge that a certain amount of confusion on this topic is far from being uncommon, or even inappropriate.

Back to the dictionary itself -- there is a handy little reverse dictionary in back, translating words from English to Mohegan. There is a short table of numerals, as well, going from one (nequt) to 29 (nobnenebozukukwong). Remember, this dictionary is best used in conjunction with the writings of Fidelia Fielding. That diary is available in the 43rd Annual Report of the "Bureau of American Ethnology," published for the years 1925-1926. The article is straightforwardly entitled "Mohegan Pequot Diary," and is an intriguing mixture of a.)mundane comments on the weather, and b.)fascinating religious musings. The religious musings are intriguing because they embody an amazing, syncretic amalgam of Christianity and native conceptualizations of supernatural manitou, spelled "mandu" in Mohegan... For further source materials, you may want to have a look at the periodical "American Anthropologist," volume 5, pp.193-212.

The so-called "modern" Mohegan tongue, currently being revitalized by the tribe, will have a few small differences when work is completed, simply due to a lack of hard data to work with. It's still BASED on this vocabulary, however, so the book will always have some merit in that regard.

This vocabulary is also intended, in part, as a supplement to James Hammond Trumbull's "Natick Dictionary," which is also available from this online bookstore. "Natick Dictionary" is referred to frequently here, in definitions, for Algonquian cognates.

I looked carefully through this vocabulary for words which may have been borrowed by English. This can be a fun way to spend an hour. "Caucus," for example, is often believed to have come from a New England dialect of Algonquian, although I couldn't find it here. About the only word I could find was kind of funny -- skunk. Yup, skunk. We seem to have borrowed that word from Mohegan, or at least one of its near linguistic relatives.

RECOMMENDATIONS: If you're interested in the ancient native tongues of southern New England, you may wish to look at Bragdon and Goddard's "Native Writings in Massachusett," available from this online bookstore. For the Rhode Island dialect, try "A Key into the Language of America," by Roger Williams. For a book about the MOHICAN dialect of Algonquian, which, as I said earlier, is NOT the same as Mohegan, but was spoken in more western parts of Connecticut, try "Observations on the Mochican Language," by Jonathan Edwards. For examples of the language spoken in the old New Haven area, look for "Abraham Pierson's Some Helps for the Indians," by Abraham Pierson. For an interesting book to help give some context to the old Mohegan words, look for "Native American Place Names of Connecticut," by R. A. Douglas-Lithgow.

This book is a helpful work of scholarship, and has been invaluable in helping to restore the heritage of the Mohegan people. Two thumbs up!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Native American Heritage, November 2, 2006

By 

John A. Anderson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Vocabulary of Mohegan-Pequot (American Language Reprints) (Hardcover)

I have to say that i was very pleased with this book. Growing up in Connecticut I was only marginaly aware of my heritage through my grandmother. I found that this book was not only a good dictionary of the known words but also a book of history. I feel that this book helped bring me closer to the Mohegan tribe and i was very pleased with my purchase. The only thing i could have hoped for more of was the language itself. But as was explained, much of the language was lost and they have peiced together the best that was possible. It seems that the authors put real time and effort into this book.