A Key Into the Language of America
Encyclopedia
A Key into the Language of America (also known as A help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America called New England) is a book written by Roger Williams
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...

 in 1643 describing the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 languages (largely Narragansett, an Algonquian language
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...

) in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 in the 17th century. The book is the first study of an Amerindian language in English.

History

The author, Roger Williams, was the founder of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

 and a Christian dissident who believed that the king had no right to grant title to Native American lands without their permission. Williams interacted extensively with the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes as a missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

, friend, and trader. Williams extolled many parts of Indian culture as superior to European culture, and he wrote several complimentary poems within the book. The book was the first major study of a Native American language and was intended for English usage in communicating with Native Americans. Presumably, Williams also published the book to rebut Massachusetts' distorted claims about the first Native American conversions to Christianity (particularly that of Wequash Cooke
Wequash Cooke
Wequash Cooke was allegedly one of the earliest Native American converts to Protestant Christianity, and as a sagamore he played an important role in the 1637 Pequot War in New England.-Relationship with Native people:Cooke was the eldest son of the sachem of the Niantic tribe and some historians...

, a Pequot in Connecticut) and to thereby halt Massachusetts' moral claims to Rhode Island's territory. Williams' friend Gregory Dexter
Gregory Dexter
Gregory Dexter was a printer, Baptist minister, and early President of the combined towns of Providence and Warwick in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was in New England as early as 1638 when he had a five-acre lot assigned to him in Providence...

 printed the book in London, England, and the publication brought Williams much public attention.

Notable words

The book helped to popularize and introduce numerous Native American loan words into the English lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...

, including:
  • quahog
  • papoose
    Papoose
    A papoose is an American English loanword whose present meaning is "a Native American Indian child" or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of endearment, often in the context of the child's mother. The word came originally from the Narragansett tribe...

  • powwow
    PowWow
    PowWow is a wireless sensor network mote developed by the Cairn team of IRISA/INRIA. The platform is currently based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard radio transceiver and on an MSP430 microprocessor...

  • squash (askutasquash)
  • squaw
    Squaw
    Squaw is an English language loan-word, used as a noun or adjective, whose present meaning is an indigenous woman of North America. It is derived from the eastern Algonquian morpheme meaning 'woman' that appears in numerous Algonquian languages variously spelled squa, skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que,...

  • succotash
    Succotash
    Succotash is a food dish consisting primarily of corn and lima beans or other shell beans. Other ingredients may be added including tomatoes and green or sweet red peppers. Because of the relatively inexpensive and more readily available ingredients, the dish was popular during the Great...


External links


See also

  • The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience
    The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience
    The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace is a 1644 book about government force written by Roger Williams, the founder of the American colony of Rhode Island and the co-founder of the First Baptist Church in America...

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