Erie is an extinct language, believed to have beenIroquoian, similar toWyandot, formerly spoken by theErie people. It was poorly documented, and linguists are not certain that this conclusion is correct. There have been few connections with Europeans and the Erie with the French, and Dutch being peaceful, while the English being mostly hostile.
The namesErie andEriez are shortened forms ofErielhonan, meaning "long tail", referring to local panthers. The Erie were called the "Cat people" (Nation du Chat in French; Hodge 1910,[note 1] Swanton[note 2]).
At least oneloanword survives from the Erie language:Chautauqua, a word of uncertain definition/translation.[1]
^Erie (Huron:yěñresh, 'it is long-tailed', referring to the eastern puma or panther; Tuscarora,kěn'räks, 'lion', a modern use, Gallicised into Eri and Ri, whence the locatives Eri'e, and Riqué, 'at the place of the panther', are derived. Compare the forms Erieehronon, Eriechronon, and Riquéronon of theJesuit Relations, signifying 'people of the panther'. It is probable that in Iroquois, the puma and the wild-cat were originally referred to by the same generic name, and that the defining term has survived as the name of the puma or panther).It was a populous, sedentary Iroquoian-speaking tribe. In the 17th century, the Erie occupied territory extending south fromLake Erie probably to theOhio River, east to the lands of the Conestoga along the east watershed ofAllegheny River. Their language was thought to resemble that of the Hurons (Wyandot), known as an Iroquoian people. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin #30.
^"Erie". Meaning in Iroquois, "long tail," and referring to the panther, from which circumstance they are often referred to as the Cat Nation. The Erie belonged to the Iroquoian language family. Also called: GA-quA'-ga-o-no, byLewis Henry Morganal (1851)
