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Wyandot — the Wyandot Language

Waⁿdat — the language of the Huron and Wyandot people of Barbeau's 1915 book, taught again today in the Wyandotte Nation's own classes in Oklahoma.

Recovered texts are here to read. The people's own curriculum doorway is in preparation — in partnership with the Wyandot and Wendat nations' own speakers. The goal is the whole collection in Wyandot: every book to read and to hear, here and in the school. Nothing is published until they have guided and reviewed it.

The language

The book on this shelf names the language Wyandot — the language of the Wyandot/Wendat people: the Huron-Wendat Nation at Wendake, the book's Lorette; the Wyandotte Nation; and the Wyandot of Anderdon and of Kansas/Oklahoma — named here as the book names them, and not merged. The Wyandotte Nation's own culture page gives the people's traditional name as Waⁿdat (Wandat) and the language family as Northern Iroquoian, and names the two other bands of Wyandot people in its own words: the Wyandot of Anderdon Nation in Michigan and the Wyandot Nation of Kansas — “the same people separated by fate, the passing of time and choices made by our ancestors.”

The Wyandotte Nation teaches the language again in its own house: its culture page carries Waⁿdat Wednesdays — “Learn basic Waⁿdat Vocabulary! (No Prior Classes Needed)” — and a Wyandotte Basics class, and its traditional names are still bestowed in the Wandat language by its Chief, through the Nation's own process. The other Wyandot and Wendat nations keep their own houses; this doorway links the nation's language work that was verified for it, and claims nothing for the others.

Their own teachers

The Wyandotte Nation's Cultural Center & Museum at Wyandotte, Oklahoma, is the house linked here: it carries the Nation's Waⁿdat vocabulary teaching and its Wyandotte Basics class, and the Nation's own culture page is where its language work stands. Learn the language there, in the Nation's own spelling of Waⁿdat.

Wyandotte Nation — Culture — the Nation's own culture page: Waⁿdat Wednesdays vocabulary teaching, Wyandotte Basics, and traditional names in the Wandat language

The writing

The recovered witness below keeps the book's own provisional phonetic spelling, with its List of Wyandot Phonetic Signs — the book's key to that spelling — recovered entire on the page; the page also declares its reservation openly: in the densest Wyandot clusters, the exact sort of an individual tick and a breve's placement rest on the image readings and stand subject to a Wyandot reader's audit. The Nation today writes Waⁿdat with its superscript ⁿ, as its own page gives it. The two writings are not the same: read the witness in its own dress, and learn the language at the Nation's house in the Nation's spelling.

Recovered reading

One recovered book stands here: Huron and Wyandot Mythology (Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 80, 1915), by C. M. Barbeau — the title page, the Contents entire, the List of Illustrations, the Preface entire (every narrator named as printed), the List of Wyandot Phonetic Signs entire, the Introduction entire (pp. 1–36), and Myth I, “The Origin of the World,” complete (pp. 37–47): 22,334 words, with no reading marked [?], under the phonetic reservation named in The writing above. Honesty about what this witness holds: Myth I was, by its own printed footnote, “Recorded in English” — it is recovered as exactly that, an English-language record of a Wyandot myth told by B. N. O. Walker, who learnt it from his aunt, the late Kitty Greyeyes; no Wyandot text is claimed for it. What this volume witnesses in the language itself is its phonetic key and the Wyandot names and words printed throughout. Not recovered: Myths II–XCVIII, the Appendix, and the Abstracts, which stand for continuation. It is the people's own witness, recovered as a historical text — not a Sacred Name edition; the collection's own edition in this language waits for the partnership. Read the front matter, phonetic signs, Introduction, and Myth I of Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915)

Myth II of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “Creation Myth (First Version),” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 47–49), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth II. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myth III of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “Creation Myth (Second Version),” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 50–51), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth III. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myth IV of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “The Thunder,” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 51–53), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth IV. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myth V of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “The Origin of the Sun-Shower,” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 53–56), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth V. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myth VI of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “The Origin of the Pleiades,” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 56–58), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth VI. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myth VII of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915), “Origin of the Seven Stars,” also stands recovered complete (printed pp. 58–59), exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order after the myths before it: read Myth VII. It is a historical witness, not a Sacred Name edition; where the memoir prints English only, the page says so, and the Wyandot texts the Preface reserved for a separate monograph are not in this volume.

Myths VIII–XII of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth VIII, “Skadawati and the Giant,” to Myth XII, “The Two Giant Cousins and the Old Witch”: read Myth VIII. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths XIII–XXI of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth XIII, “The Big Turtle Myth,” to Myth XXI, “The Snake Clan”: read Myth XIII. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths XXII–XXX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth XXII, “The Snake Clan’s Myth,” to Myth XXX, “The Lion and the Boy”: read Myth XXII. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths XXXI–XXXIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth XXXI, “The Maple and the Woman,” to Myth XXXIX, “The Ill-Treated Husband”: read Myth XXXI. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths XL–XLIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth XL, “The Seven Brothers Transformed into Oxen,” to Myth XLIX, “The Suitors”: read Myth XL. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths L–LIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth L, “How a Wizard’s Daughter Got Married,” to Myth LIX, “The Wolf and the Raccoon”: read Myth L. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths LX–LXIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth LX, “The Raccoon and the Wolf (Second Version),” to Myth LXIX, “He Is Going to the Land of Bliss”: read Myth LX. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths LXX–LXXIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth LXX, “The Fugitive Young Woman and Her Dog Charm,” to Myth LXXIX, “To a Child”: read Myth LXX. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths LXXX–LXXXIX of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth LXXX, “The Big Snake,” to Myth LXXXIX, “The Coming of the White Man Foretold”: read Myth LXXX. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

Myths XC–XCVIII of Barbeau's Huron and Wyandot Mythology (1915) now also stand recovered complete, each on its own page, exactly as printed and in the memoir's own order — from Myth XC, “The Advent of the White Man,” to Myth XCVIII, “The White Man and the Indian”: read Myth XC. Every myth of the series stands in the recovered index. They are historical witnesses, not Sacred Name editions; where the memoir prints English only, the pages say so.

An open invitation

This door stands open by invitation. If you are a speaker, teacher, or language keeper of Wyandot, or you carry its authority, this programme asks to work with you — to be guided, corrected, and reviewed by the people whose language this is. In this collection the holy names are never invented: what the Creator is called in a language is for its own speakers to give, and the spelling of every text is theirs to settle. Write to the publisher at [email protected].

The first door is the Wyandotte Nation and its Cultural Center & Museum.

To hear it

When Wyandot opens here, it will be heard as well as read — in its own voice, spoken and recorded by Wyandot speakers. Until then this door is silent in Wyandot on purpose: the first voice heard in it should be the people's own.

The other doors

One small advertisement stands at the bottom of this page — never inside the reading text. The words of the book stand more prominent than the advertisement.