The sole documentary evidence for this language is two short wordlists recorded around the time of first European contact.
Although the language has become extinct, some of the tribes that were part of the Powhatan Chiefdom still remain close to their lands.
There is also the Powhatan Renape Nation (formerly located on the Rankokus Indian Reservation in Burlington, New Jersey) that is working to reclaim their culture and educate the public.
There is no certainty as to whether or not Carolina Algonquian was a distinct language from Powhatan, as ultimately Carolina Algonquian groups such as the Chowanoke, Croatan, and Machapunga are ethnically branches of the Powhatan groups of Virginia.
They gave this region the name Ajacán, and they may have sailed up the Potomac River; however, Spanish colonization ultimately failed in this area.
English colonists arrived in 1607 with Captain John Smith, and established the settlement of Jamestown.
Among these words are: chinquapin (Castanea pumila), chum (as in chumming), hickory, hominy, matchcoat, moccasin, muskrat, opossum, persimmon, pokeweed, pone (as in corn pone), raccoon, terrapin, tomahawk, and wicopy.
In recent decades there has been an interest in reviving the lost language, especially by the descendants of the Powhatan Confederacy.
For the film The New World (2005), which tells the story of the English colonization of Virginia and encounter with the Powhatan, Blair Rudes made a tentative reconstruction of the language "as it might have been."
More specifically, he used a Bible translated into Massachusett to piece together grammar and Proto-Algonquian to compare the words in Smith and Strachey's records.
[2][8] Linguists with the College of William and Mary are working with the Patawomeck tribe to recover the language and have made strides in doing so.
[citation needed] This table is based on Frank T. Siebert's reconstruction of the Powhatan language.
He used the notes of John Smith but relied primarily on the work of William Strachey recorded between 1610 and 1611.
Siebert also used his knowledge of the patterns of other Algonquian languages in determining the meaning of Strachey's notes.
Syllable weight is not a factor and instead it depends on if the word begins with /m/ or /n/ or ends with an /s/ or a cluster including /s/ such as /sk/.
Similarly, PA /l/ becomes /r/ in Powhatan, unless it in a word-final position of a particle or inflectional morphemes, where it is deleted.
Although it might have lost some of its strict rules, there is a clear pattern where the indication of person is mainly consistent regardless of the type or class of verbs.
Possibly due to the fact that Siebert's research was more focused on reconstructing Powhatan for the purpose of comparing it to Proto-Algonquian or because the notes of Smith and Strachey do not lend themselves to analyzing it, syntax is not discussed in Siebert's research nor are there any examples of what sentences might have been like.
This happens especially in verbs, allowing one long word to basically represent a whole sentence.
Other languages in the Algonquian family are marked with obviative/proximate endings, which clarify the subjects of focus, especially in telling stories.
"; Finally, as explained in the transitive animate verbs section, there are circumstances of animacy hierarchy with direct objects in Powhatan.
A speculative connection to the Chickahominy and Pamunkey Virginia Algonquian tribes has been suggested, but there is no evidence to support this link.