Nottoway Language

The Nottoway Language, affectionately known endemically as Yękwawę́:taʔ (our language) is the cultural heritage of tens of thousands of years of habitation on the land we know as Turtle Island. The Nottoway form a geographically southern branch of the Northern Iroquoian linguistic family along with our closest cousins, the Tuscarora, the branches largest and most numerous constituents. Other people belonging to the Northern Iroquoian cultural-linguistic family are the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca), the Huron, Wendat, Wyandot, Meherrin, Susquehannock, Erie, Neutral, and many more.

The Nottoway Language was first recorded by John Wood in 1820 from Nottoway speakers including Edith Turner, a Nottoway Matriarch who led her people through a difficult part of our history. Wood, a professor of mathematics at the College of William and Mary, recorded the vocabulary of around 250 words on commission of Thomas Jefferson. A second source is a manuscript by J.N.B Hewitt containing a small number of additional Nottoway words bringing the total up to around 275. Comparative analysis conducted by J.N.B. Hewitt in 1910 and later corroborated by Bernard Hoffman in 1959 confirmed what we already knew, that Nottoway was an Iroquoian language most closely related to Tuscarora, partially agreeing with the initial analysis made by Jeffersons contemporary Peter DuPonceau who first identified the vocabulary as belonging to an Iroquoian language.

Yękwawę́:taʔ (our language) is alive again.

While 275 words may seem like a scarcity, to us in particular, it is a treasure trove of cultural understanding that allows us to distinctly differentiate the character of the Nottoway language compared to its cousins. This Vocabulary forms the backbone of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia’s language reconstruction and revitalization program. Established in 2018, the Nottoway Language Committee acts as the stewards of our language. Today, the Nottoway language is not just words on a page. Yękwawę́:taʔ (our language) is alive again. Through research, outreach, community support, and collaboration, Yękwawę́:taʔ is heard aloud every day. It is now being carried forward by a new generation of Nottoway people. Through the knowledge of those who came before us and the tireless work of our citizens and colleagues today, Yękwawę́:taʔ is once again becoming a living expression of who we are.