Beothuk language

The Beothuk language (also called Beothukan) was spoken by the indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland. As the Beothuk are extinct and few written accounts of their language exist, little is known about it. It is sometimes assumed to be part of the neighbouring Algonquian language family, but there is insufficient evidence to draw any strong conclusions, and this theory has not gained general acceptance. The few words of the language which are known were provided by captives such as Demasduwit and Shanawdithit.

A recording of the Beothuk language in song, as performed by a 75-year old native woman named Santu, was made in 1910 by the American anthropologist Frank Speck, and resurfaced at the very end of the twentieth century. The text is uncertain and not understood. Some sources give the year 1929, but the 1910 date is confirmed in Speck's book "Beothuk and Micmac", New York 1922, p. 67.

Beothuk has the ISO 639-3 code bue.

External links

* [http://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/beo2gifs/texts/HOW19c.html Text including Beothuk vocabulary]
* [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/LLDescription.cfm?code=bue Report for Beothuk on Linguist List]