Not everyone likes Frank Speck’s work. I get that. But when looking at material, I’m trying not to be biased. You never know where a gem might be hidden.
Currently one document I’m working off of is “Glossy of the Mohegan-Pequot Language”. At this stage of my research, I’m only gathering words and noticing how the old spellings and pronunciations match (or don’t match) the current way. I haven’t gotten into picking apart grammar yet, or what changes Modern Mohegan had made from Pequot over time although I have some vague ideas. I sometimes enter words into the dictionary with corrected spelling as much as I can, knowing that going back will be an enormous chore but it has to be done.
Speck’s Glossary can be found at archive.org and other places. I admit I wish I could get my hands on one of the original copies. Because. 100 year old paper.
Being as I’m starting with the knowledge I can get now – the most complete language system closest to Pequot (which would be Modern Mohegan) – I decided not to start with the Stephanie Fielding’s research (the Modern Mohegan language with the Mohegan Nation) as my base. The most important reason is that while looking at older references, I noticed possible discrepancies. There are also other legal reasons surrounding the language itself. At this time, the Mohegan Nation has taken down all of their language resources as things are muddled up. I wish I could use it as a resource because it would make my life a lot easier, but better not.
For whatever reason, the dictionary (or at least my copy) lacked a lot of spiritual terms that I’d been raised with. I discovered recently those terms have been preserved, they just weren’t in my dictionary. A lot of sample translations centered on the Bible – which made sense because the last speaker, Fidelia Fielding, was Christian and probably translated the Bible as a way to use the language. But the lack of items that have to do with the traditional religion and culture of the people makes the dictionary somehow less than whole. I will make no secret that putting a lot of that language and thought back will be one of my priorities as that has to do with our culture as Algonquian tribal people, even if it’s considered bad by modern standards.
Frank Speck said that by the time Fidelia recorded her version of Mohegan, the language was “in the last stages of decay”. There were also questions about the validity of Fidelia’s speech when compared to another person’s words taken from another nearby location. Fidelia’s language had definitely lost a lot in translation. I’m taking all of that into account as I straighten out the mess. I enter words into the dictionary provided at this website as I’m sure of them – and maybe sometimes I will when I’m not to sure just to make sure they’re not lost.
Finally, I’m seeing a lot of loan words from English. I have decided to keep them. Lexical borrowings are a real thing. They can’t be stopped. With some of the words it only makes sense because they’re attached to items that were brought over from the the other side. With luck, I’ll be able to find the original Pequot words to offer “synonyms” after a fashion.
The document is embedded below. I hope.
https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/jstor-659295/659295.pdf
