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 Wapariachki, or men of the east, a term 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 tiibe 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, signifi.es men. The 

 Shawnoes, who have been removed from Kentucky to the Western 

 Reservation, speak a somewhat similar tongue, also using the word 

 ilenni 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 I, and term man eneneh, replacing that letter 

 by n. The Crees, who call themselves Nehethowuck, and border on 

 the Ojibbeways to the west of Lake Superior, thence spreading to the 

 Esquimaux in the east and the Athabascans in the west, difier much 

 among themselves in their pronunciation of certain liquids. The 

 Athabascan Crees in the west turn the Lenape I into r; the Wood 

 Crees, into ih; the Hudson's Bay Crees, into y ; the Plain Crees 

 into n; 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 ilenni of the Illinois and 

 Shawnoes becomes indeed in&new among the Plain Crees, ithinew 

 among the Wood Crees, and eyinew among those of Hudson's Bay; 

 but at Moose Eactory 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 Micmacs of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, kc, whose 

 speech connects with the Lenape through the Abenaki, Etchemia, 

 2 



