Smithsonian Researcher Discovers New Native American Languages From Central Massachusetts

New findings have revealed that five distinct Native American languages were spoken in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts at the time of contact with Europeans, not just one language as previously believed. This provides new understanding of familial and political systems of indigenous people throughout eastern North America during the early Colonial period.

In a study published by Papers of the Forty-fourth Algonquian Conference, Ives Goddard, curator emeritus and senior linguist in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s Natural Museum of Natural History, used scraps of linguistic data to piece together four previously unknown languages, gaining new insight into the social organization of people that very little is known about.

http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/smithsonian-researcher-discovers-new-native-american-languages-central-massachusetts