Introduction

The Naskapi language is unique among the Algonquian languages of Quebec, because of the relatively late date of the first sustained contact between the Naskapi and non-indigenous people, the present isolated location, and their previous nomadic way of life.
Until the Naskapi were settled at Schefferville, in 1956, they actively pursued their nomadic way of life, following the caribou herds across the north of Quebec from Hudson Bay in the west to the Labrador coast in the east. Whenever they congregated at the various Hudson's Bay Company posts, it was only temporary. At the extremes of their territory, they met and married with James Bay Cree people in the west and with Innu (Montagnais and Naskapi) in the south and east. Even though the vocabulary and pronunciation of the Naskapi language reflects the variety of their contacts, their language still retains a core vocabulary not found in other related languages or neighbouring dialects, such as those of the Matimekosh (Schefferville) Innu, Whapmagoostui (Great Whale River) Cree, or Utshimassits (Davis Inlet) Mushuau Innu.

Since being settled at Schefferville, the Naskapi have maintained the use of their own language for domestic interactions, in spite of an increasing level of contact with Innu and with Canada's official languages, English and French.

The Naskapi Dictionary presented here on the Webonary platform (2017) is a revised and expanded edition of the 1994 printed publication by the same editors:

1994. Marguerite MacKenzie, Bill Jancewicz. Naskapi lexicon / Lexique naskapi (1st ed. = 1re éd.) Kawawachikamach, Quebec : Naskapi Development Corporation / Société de développement des Naskapis. [3 volumes]

The source Toolbox dictionary database is being revised and expanded by the people of the Naskapi community with the facilitation of Linguistic Intern Matthew Windsor (SIL) using FLEx, under the supervision of the editors and with the sponsorship and project ownership of the Naskapi people through their Naskapi Development Corporation (NDC). The working database is shared with the Algonquian Dictionaries Project (https://resources.atlas-ling.ca/). It is the editors' intention to maintain this partnership and continue to serve the wider community of Algonquian languages, while pro-actively meeting the needs of the local Naskapi community.