AFFILIATION OF THE ALGONQUIN LANGUAGES. 17 
the Northern Continent with the Old World. This is the extensive 
Algonquin family, reaching from Newfoundland to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and from the Labrador Esquimaux and Hudson’s Bay Atha- 
bascans to the Choctaw area in the Carolinas. Their collective name 
was Wapanachki, or men of the east, aterm which still designates the 
Abenaki tribe of Maine. Their traditions universally refer to a 
migration from the far west, and the Great Spirit whom they wor- 
shipped had his home in no forest, prairie or lake, but on an island 
in the distant ocean. The principal tribe of this large family from 
the earliest period to which traditions refer was that of the Lenni 
Lenape, or Delawares. Closely allied to them in language are the 
Illinois, including the Miami, Piankashaws and other clans. The 
word Illinois, like the Lenni of Lenni Lenape, signifies men. The 
Shawnoes, who have been removed from Kentucky to the Western 
Reservation, speak a somewhat similar tongue, also using the word 
denm to designate man, but favouring the lisping th in place of the s, 
and cognate letters of other tribes. The Missisaguas, who originally, 
held the site of Toronto and the coast of Lake Ontario down to its 
outlet in the St. Lawrence, were likewise linneeh. North of these 
we find the Ojibbeway or Chippewa tribe, with whose name, appear- 
ance and language, Canadians are most familiar. They make a 
sparing use of the letter /, and term man eneneh, replacing that letter 
by x. The Crees, who call themselves Vehethowuck, and border on 
the Ojibbeways to the west of Lake Superior, thence spreading to the 
Esquimaux in the east and the Athabaseans in the west, differ much 
among themselves in their pronunciation of certain liquids. The 
Athabascan Crees in the west turn the Lenape / into r; the Wood 
Crees, into th; the Hudson’s Bay Crees, into y; the Plain Crees 
into 2; while those of Labrador retain the Lenape form. At the 
same time the Cree has a tendency towards a species of alliteration 
in the same word, repeating the characteristic letter in place of the 
consonant which follows it. Thus the denni of the Illinois and 
Shawnoes becomes indeed inenew among the Plain Crees, ithinew 
among the Wood Crees, and eyinew among those of Hudson’s Bay; 
but at Moose Factory it is ililew, and eyiyew on the East Main coast. 
Passing over the Nipissings, Ottawas and Algonquins proper, whose 
languages are closely allied and resemble more or less the Ojibbeway, 
we meet with the Micmacsof Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, &c., whose 
speech connects with the Lenape through the Abenaki, Etchemin, 
2 
