Pronunciation of "Acaxee"

Q: How do you pronounce "Acaxee?"

A: Good question. Unfortunately, the answer is no one knows for sure. The Acaxee language has not been spoken since the 1600's, and the one Jesuit grammar of the language has been lost.

We can make some good guesses though. According to Spanish spelling conventions in Mexico during the 16th and 17th centuries, we would expect a word the Spanish wrote down as "Acaxee" to be pronounced either ah-kah-shay, ah-kah-hay, or ah-kah-jay (with a raspy "j" as in "jalapeño.) The letter "x" was used to represent all three of these sounds at that time.

However, if we look through other Spanish texts, we can see the name was sometimes spelled Acage or Acajee. Since "g" and "j" can both be pronounced as  either "h" or the raspy "j" sound, but never as "sh," we can rule that out.

And finally, it is believed that Acaxee was a Taracahitic language, similar to Mayo or Yaqui. Neither of those languages has any j-as-in-jalapeño sound, but they do both have an h-as-in-hay sound. It is a reasonable guess that Acaxee would have been similar.

Therefore, our best guess is that Acaxee was probably pronounced ah-kah-hay.

Hope that helps, have a good day!

Further reading:
Acaxee language

The letter "8"

Q: In the section:  How is the Abenaki tribe organized?

in the final sentence, it reads "The leader or chief of each Abenaki band is

called sagama or sag8mo in their language."

I’m not sure but "sag8mo" seems like a typo.

Thanks for the info.

A:   Strange as it may seem, no... the "8" was an old linguistic symbol, used by missionaries, to represent a nasal "aw" sound as in "dawn," which is how the middle vowel in that word is actually pronounced.

Since most Native American languages were traditionally unwritten, the spelling systems that have been used for them have sometimes been a little on the unintuitive side.

Hope that is interesting to you. Have a good day!

Further reading:
Abenaki language
Abenaki alphabet
Abenaki tribe