Loup languages

Loup is a term which refers to the Algonquian language varieties spoken in colonial New England as attested in the manuscripts of mid-eighteenth century French missionaries.^[1] It was attested in a notebook titled Mots loups (literally translating to "wolf words"), compiled by Jean-Claude Mathevet, a priest who worked among Algonquian peoples, composing of 124 pages.^[2] Loup ('Wolf') was a French colonial ethnographic term, and usage was inconsistent. In modern literature, Loup A refers to the varieties described by Mathevet, and Loup B refers to those described by François-Auguste Magon de Terlaye.^[1]

Loup
Nipmuck
Pronunciation	[lu] loo
Native to	United States
Region	Massachusetts, Connecticut
Ethnicity	likely Nipmuck
Extinct	18th century
Language family	Algic Algonquian Eastern Algonquian Loup
Writing system	transcribed with Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: xlo – Loup A xlb – Loup B
Linguist List	xlo Loup A
	xlb Loup B
Glottolog	loup1243  Nipmuck loup1245  Loup B

Classification

Linguist Ives Goddard identified three distinct language varieties each attested in the Loup A and Loup B manuscripts. The languages of Loup A are referred to as Loup 1, Loup 2, and Loup 3; the languages of Loup B are referred to as Loup 4, Loup 5, and Loup 6. According to Goddard, Loup 3 and Loup 4 are the same language.^[1]

On the basis of morphophonological comparisons with other Algonquian languages and ethnogeographic context, Goddard identifies the five Loup languages with particular bands of the Pocumtuck Confederacy:^[1]

• Nipmuck (Loup 1)
• Norwottuck (Loup 2)
• Pocumtuck (Loup 3 and 4)
• Woromco (Loup 5)
• Pojassick (Loup 6)

Chaubunagungamaug lake sign, a place name originating from the Nipmuck people

Phonology

The phonology of Loup A [1] (Nipmuck), reconstructed by Gustafson 2000:

Nipmuc consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal/ Postalveolar	Velar		Glottal
		plain	pal.		plain	lab.
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t	tʲ		k	(kʷ)
Affricate				tʃ
Fricative		s					h
Lateral		l
Approximant	w			j

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i, iː	u
Mid	e	o, oː
Open	a, aː, ã

The vowel sounds likely have the same phonetic quality as other southern New England Algonquian languages. The short vowels /i o e a/ may represent the sounds as [ɪ], [ʊ], [ɛ, ə], and [ʌ], while the long vowels /iː/, /oː/, and /ã/ correspond to /i/, /o/, and /ã/.^[2][3]