Malecite-Passamaquoddy language

Malecite–Passamaquoddy
Spoken in	Canada; United States
Region	New Brunswick; Maine
Ethnicity	Maliseet people, Passamaquoddy people
Native speakers	1,655  (date missing)
Language family	Algic Algonquian Eastern Malecite–Passamaquoddy
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pqm
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Malecite–Passamaquoddy (also known as Maliseet–Passamaquoddy) is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples along both sides of the border between Maine in the United States and New Brunswick, Canada. The language consists of two major dialects: Malecite, which is mainly spoken in New Brunswick, and Passamaquoddy, spoken mostly in Maine.^[1] In both Canada and the U.S., most speakers are older adults.^[2] Only 1500 speakers of both dialects combined remain alive. Many younger people cannot speak the language, in particular, the Passamaquoddy dialect.^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Post-alv.	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive		p [p]	t [t]			k [k] kw [kʷ]
Fricative			s [s]				h [h]
Affricate				c [t͡ʃ]
Nasal		m [m]	n [n]
Approximant	central	w [w]			y [j]
	lateral		l [l]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i [i] i: [iː]
Mid	e [e] e: [eː]	ǝ [ə]	o [o] o: [oː]
Low		a [a] a: [aː]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language (Maliseet-Passamaquoddy Language)". Native-languages.org. http://www.native-languages.org/mali.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-19. 
2. ^ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

References

• Ethnologue entry for Malecite-Passamaquoddy

External links

• Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language at Native Languages
• Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary from the Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute
• Chamberlin, Montague (1899). Maliseet Vocabulary. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Cooperative Society).