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535 Appendix C Linguistic Data Petun Language The language of the Petuns was a dialect of Wendat (Wyandot), or Huron-Wyandot language ,a Northern Iroquoian language which has been called“Huronian”(Heidenreich and Burgar 1999: 67). Other than to note that Horatio Hale (1883a: 24, 26) held that Wyandot was the parent Iroquoian language, the origins and evolution of theWyandot language, and related political divisions and migration theories, are subjects for other scholars (e.g., Hale 1883a; Lounsbury 1978 15: 334-343). The language of the Petun was not recorded,“but it may be virtually documented by the materials from theWyandot”(Lounsbury 1978 15:334).It was,with dialectic differences, the language spoken by the Hurons,“whose language they speak” (JR 8: 115; JR 20: 43; JR 41: 77; Sagard 1939: 9; Steckley 1996) and also by the Neutrals. Although no longer spoken, published and unpublished word lists, grammars and several dictionaries of PreDispersal Huron and Post-Dispersal Western Wyandot have survived (Heidenreich 1978c: 368), as have some recordings made by C. Marius Barbeau. The Jesuits observed that there were dialectic differences between the Huron Bear and the White Ears Deer (JR 10: 11; Heidenreich 1978c: 368).The Northern Bear, Southern Bear, Cord and Rock had different dialects (JR 10: 11; Steckley 1993a: 24-25, 1997), reflecting their different origins. The Petun shared many linguistic features with the southern Attignawantan (southern Huron Bear), with whom, according to Champlain, they shared “the same customs” (Champlain 1929: 96, 1932: 279; Garrad and Heidenreich 1978: 395; Steckley 1993a). Linguist John L. Steckley has observed that the shared phonetic features are such to suggest that the Petun “and Southern Bear were once one people, or at least two people in close alliance prior to the formation of the Petun and the alliance of the Northern Bear with the Southern Bear,” and possibly the (Huron) Cord were included “in some way.” Six of nine phonetic features with dialect differences in the languages spoken by Petuns and Southern Bear were identical, between Petun and Northern Bear only two, and with the Rock none. One of the three forms in which Petun and Southern Bear differ had been identical earlier but the Southern Bear had modified by contact with the Northern Bear (Steckley 1993a: 20-26, 1996: 2).What were believed to be Southern Bear Huron were most likely recent arrivals from Neutralia via the HumberValley. So little was recorded specific to the speech of the PetunWolf and the Petun Deer that it is not possible to say how similar their dialects were. Steckley (1993a: 25fn1) assumes there were no differences. It is somewhat of a surprise that the close trade connection between the Petun and Rock was not reflected linguistically. 536 APPENDIX C To what extent the original Petun dialect was modified by the accession of theWenros and the later migration is not known, but much was preserved in the language of the Post-Dispersal Western Wyandot. Steckley (1988: 59) observed that evidence of the Petun dominance within the Post-DispersalWesternWyandot is both linguistic and omnastic.The Post-DispersalWyandot language remained“primarily a form of Petun,”because the“main political component of the Wyandot… [was] supplied by the Petun” (Steckley 1988: 59, 1993a: 20-26). The usual Native word for the Western Wyandots was commonly a version of etionnontateronnon (’people where there is a hill or mountain’), presumably referring to the Petuns’ Pre-Dispersal Blue Mountain homeland in Ontario. While only a few name words were recorded among the Pre-Dispersal Petuns (see below), much has been deduced from the later writings of Father Pierre Potier (1920), the later ethnographic researches of Horatio Hale in Ontario, of William Elsey Connelly in Kansas and of C. Marius Barbeau in Ontario and Oklahoma (Chapter 3.5). More recent scholars continue the work of understanding the Wyandot language in Ontario, notably John Steckley (e.g., 1988, 1993a, 1993b, 1993c, 1996, 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2000), and Iroquoian languages generally (Lounsbury 1978: 334-343). Horatio Hale recognised the Wyandots of Anderdon as “for the most part descendants of the Petun Indians,” the last “tribe which retained in Canada the speech of the once famous and powerful Huron people”(Jones 1909:418;Hale 1894:4).Hale wrote frequently about the Huron-Iroquois language.He hypothesised that it was the language of the HuronCherokee (Hale 1883a: 20). From surviving “several sister-tongues” he deduced that “the Huron represents the older form of their common speech.” In Huron he detected “at least two...

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