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Concept information

Preferred term

abeWestern Abnaki  

Type

  • Language

Definition

  • Western Abnaki (also known as Abenaki or St. Francis Abenaki) is one of the World's most endangered languages. In 1991 it was spoken by 20 individuals along the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, who lived mostly at Odanak, the site of the former mission village of St. Francis and about 50 individuals living throughout New York state and Connecticut. It is now considered nearly extinct. However, a new generation of speakers are actively preserving and revitalizing the language. Fluent speakers Joseph Elie Joubert from the Odanak reservation and fluent speaker Jesse Bowman Bruchac lead partial immersion classes in the language across the northeast. They have also created several new books in and about the language as well as audio, video and web-based media to help others learn the language.

Entry terms

  • Abnaki, Western
  • Western Abnaki language

ISO 639-3 code

  • abe

Notation

  • abe

In other languages

  • Westliche Abenaki

    German

URI

http://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/abe

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