MLS# 1330662. An early 17th century explorer named James Rosier identified the Abenaki word for moose as moosur. In 1880, the state recognized 324 Narragansett tribal members as claimants to the land during negotiations. Competing police experts testified on each side of the case.[31]. Some were so closely related that scholars consider them dialects of the same language. Narragansett definition, a member of a North American Indian tribe of the Algonquian family formerly located in Rhode Island but now almost extinct. /* 728x15 link ad */ Here is a visual representation of the language family: As our ancestors acclimated to colonial life, they began to speak English as both a common language and as a way to be more acceptable to the rapidly growing European population. Cowan, William. In Papers of the Thirteenth Algonquian Conference. What's new on our site today! Narragansett / n r n s t / is an Algonquian language formerly spoken in most of what is today Rhode Island by the Narragansett people. 151155 in Actes du 8e Congrs des Algonquinistes, 1976, William Cowan, ed., Ottawa: Carleton University. Aubin, George Francis. We have included twenty basic Narragansett words here, to compare with related American Indian languages. Gladys Tantaquidgeon By Department of Historic Preservation/The Mohegan Tribe, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37390510. Language descriptions.