| Maliseet-Passamaquoddy | |
|---|---|
| skicinuwatuwewakon | |
| Native to | Canada; United States |
| Region | New Brunswick; Maine |
| Ethnicity | 5,500 Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy (2010) |
Native speakers | 355 in Canada (2016 census)[1] 100 in the United States (2007) |
Algic
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pqm |
| Glottolog | male1292 |
| ELP | Maliseet-Passamaquoddy |
 Distribution of Wolastoqey and Passamaquoddy peoples. | |
 Maliseet-Passamaquoddy is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Maliseet-Passamaquoddy (/ˈmælɪsiːt ˌpæsəməˈkwɒdiː/ MAL-ih-seet PAS-ə-mə-KWOD-ee; skicinuwatuwewakon or skicinuwi-latuwewakon) is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Wolastoqey and Passamaquoddy peoples along both sides of the border between Maine in the United States and New Brunswick, Canada. The language consists of two major dialects: Maliseet, which is mainly spoken in the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick; and Passamaquoddy, spoken mostly in the St. Croix River Valley of eastern Maine. However, the two dialects differ only slightly, mainly in their phonology. The indigenous people widely spoke Maliseet-Passamaquoddy in these areas until around the post-World War II era when changes in the education system and increased marriage outside of the speech community caused a large decrease in the number of children who learned or regularly used the language.[2] As a result, in both Canada and the U.S. today, there are only 600 speakers of both dialects, and most speakers are older adults.[3] Although the majority of younger people cannot speak the language (particularly the Passamaquoddy dialect), there is growing interest in teaching the language in community classes and in some schools.[2][4]
- ^ Maliseet-Passamaquoddy at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ a b Leavitt, Robert M. Passamaquoddy-Maliseet. 1996. Newcastle: Lincom Europa.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
e18was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language (Maliseet-Passamaquoddy Language)". Native-languages.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
