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Nansemond language

The Nansemond language is an extinct language that was spoken by the Nansemond people of Virginia, United States.

The Nansemond language may have been a member of the Algonquian language family, similar to that of many other Atlantic coastal tribes. However, only six words have been preserved, which are not enough to identify and classify it.

Word list

The six Nansemond words, which may have been corrupted in memory by the time they were written down in 1901, are:

There are a few Nansemond words that were historically documented by John Smith, including:
fishing point Nansemond
??? Mattanock
??? Chuckatuck
???
???
??? Weyhohomo
non-Christian/Nansemond Pochick

Lexical comparison

Below is a comparison of Nansemond words and selected proto-languages from Zamponi (2024).

See also

References