Nuts and Bolts: the Massachusetts ꝏ

 

This is the title page of The Whole Holy His-Bible God, both Old Testament and also New Testament. This turned by the servant-of-Christ, who is called John Eliot.

John Eliot wanted to convert the native people of Massachusetts to Christianity, and to do that he decided they should have a complete version of the bible in their own language - in particular in the Natick dialect of those people who lived around him. He didn't speak Natick, and in fact Natick had never been a written-down language, but he set to work and managed to translate the whole Bible in about fourteen years. He was even sensible enough to enlist the help of Cockenoe, John Sassamon, Job Nesuton, and James Printer, who did actually speak the Natick dialect of Massachusett.

One thing John Eliot did was to introduce a new letter, 

ꝏ

to reproduce the long oo sound of the word food, as opposed to the short oo of the word hook (although John Eliot seems to have used the two different ways of writing these sounds interchangeably).

Sadly, the Natick language is no longer spoken in America, but since the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project began in the year 2000 the double oo ligature: 

ꝏ

 

has been used, though turned on its side so it can be typed as a figure 8.

Yes, this story of dedication and eccentricity is completely useless information for almost all of us.

But it's a precious thing, all the same.

Thing To Wonder At Today: the Massachusetts ꝏ.