| Loup | |
| Pronunciation: | in French pronounced as /lu/ |
| States: | United States |
| Region: | Massachusetts, Connecticut |
| Ethnicity: | likely Nipmuck |
| Extinct: | 18th century |
| Familycolor: | Algic |
| Fam1: | Algic |
| Fam2: | Algonquian |
| Fam3: | Eastern Algonquian |
| Lc1: | xlo |
| Ld1: | Loup A |
| Lc2: | xlb |
| Ld2: | Loup B |
| Linglist: | xlo |
| Lingname: | Loup A |
| Linglist2: | xlb |
| Lingname2: | Loup B |
| Glotto: | loup1243 |
| Glottoname: | Nipmuck |
| Glotto2: | loup1245 |
| Glottoname2: | Loup B |
| Script: | transcribed with Latin script |
| Also Known As: | Nipmuck |
Loup is an extinct Algonquian language, or possibly group of languages, spoken in colonial New England. 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. Loup ('Wolf') was a French colonial ethnographic term, and usage was inconsistent. In modern literature, it refers to two varieties, Loup A and Loup B.[1] The language of the Mots loups notebook is different from all other New England languages, and is believed to have been spoken by the Nipmuc.
Loup A, which is likely the language of the Nipmuck, is principally attested from a word list recorded from refugees by the St. Francis mission to the Abenaki in Quebec. The descendants of these refugees became speakers of Western Abenaki in the eighteenth century. Loup B refers to a second word list, which shows extensive dialectal variation. This may not be a distinct language, but just notes on the speech of various New England Algonquian refugees in French missions.[2] According to Gustafson 2000, the geographical location and phonology of Loup rule out association with any other tribes except for the Nipmuck.
The phonology of Loup A (Nipmuck), reconstructed by Gustafson 2000:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal/ Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | |||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ | ||