Miami-Illinois: The Language of Miami and Peoria Communities

Who speaks Miami-Illinois, and what do they call it?

Miami-Illinois is a scholarly name covering the closely related speech of several peoples, including Myaamia and Peewaalia. Myaamia is called myaamiaataweenki; Peoria uses Inohkaataweenki.

The Miami and Peoria tribal governments are in northeastern Oklahoma. Miami citizens also live across the United States and abroad; Peoria ancestry includes Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea communities.

How many people speak Miami-Illinois worldwide?

About 100 Myaamia speakers or semi-speakers were reported in 2025 in the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma context. The worldwide total across Miami-Illinois varieties remains uncertain.

Where did Miami-Illinois come from, and who spoke it in the past?

Miami-Illinois belongs to the Algonquian family. Its older homelands include parts of today's Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Miami, Wea, Piankeshaw, Peoria and Kaskaskia people were among its speakers. Written records reach back to late seventeenth-century missionary work.

Daryl and Karen Baldwin helped bring Myaamia back into family life, learning alongside their children through cooking and household tasks. Daryl had found language materials among his grandfather's belongings and sought out people who could help him understand them. They took part in a wider movement involving Julie Olds, David Costa and the Miami Tribe. Their grandchildren were born into a community already speaking Myaamia.

Which Miami-Illinois words might an English speaker already recognise?

Pecan entered English through American French pacane, from Illinois pakani.

Chicago connects with Myaamia šikaakwa, wild leek. The city's Myaamia name, Šikaakonki, means Wild Leek Place.

How does Miami-Illinois vary from region to region?

Historically, Myaamia, Wea and Piankeshaw belonged to the Wabash Valley group; Peoria and Kaskaskia to the Illinois and Mississippi river group. Pronunciation and vocabulary differed.

Myaamia neepanki and Peewaalia leepanki both describe cold weather. This n/l difference occurs in a particular group of words.

What is Standard Miami-Illinois, and where is it used?

Myaamia's standardized spelling, developed in the 1990s, is used in dictionaries and teaching. Peewaalia has its own community program: the Peoria Tribe's PLACE, for language and cultural education.

Which alphabet does Miami-Illinois use, and what might surprise an English speaker?

The Myaamia Center's Roman-based system has 16 distinct letters: twelve consonants and four vowels. Its 20 basic sound spellings count short and long vowels separately, as in a and aa.

The letter š sounds like English “sh”; c sounds like the beginning of “church.”

Does Miami-Illinois have grammatical gender?

Yes. Myaamia distinguishes animate and inanimate nouns. Drums and stars are animate, so these categories do not simply mean living or nonliving.

How do you say hello, thank you and goodbye in Miami-Illinois?

In Myaamia:

• Hello or hi: aya.
• Thank you: neewe.
• Goodbye: šaaye.

What are some memorable Miami-Illinois sayings?

• A historical Myaamia expression, keešiikikoleehwaki, pictures tickling someone's nose to describe how difficult it is to get something from him.
• šaakwiteehiaani means “I am grieving, heartbroken.” Its image is a crushed heart.

What everyday customs might surprise a visitor?

Myaamia historical narratives can be shared year-round. The season for winter stories, aalhsoohkaana, opens when hard frost sends small frogs into hibernation and silences their calls. Their return and the first spring thunderstorm close the season. Characters include Fox, Wolf and the powerful, often foolish Wiihsakacaakwa.

Which Miami-Illinois-language song and film offer a cultural introduction?

ciinkwia (Jarrid Baldwin) shared an Aya Aya video made for a Myaamia heritage class at Miami University. The song's Myaamia lyrics follow the Frère Jacques tune and appear with English translations.

In the short filmed story Where the Myaamia First Came From, Baldwin narrates first in Myaamia, then English. About four minutes long, it connects the people's emergence to the St. Joseph River near South Bend, Indiana.

What is available for someone curious about the language now?

The online Myaamia-Peewaalia dictionary has searchable entries and recordings of words and phrases. The Myaamia pronunciation guide links its sound examples to those entries.

The 2005 Miami-Peoria Dictionary, by Daryl Baldwin and David Costa, includes example sentences and an English finder.

The 2011 storybook myaamia neehi peewaalia aacimoona neehi aalhsoohkaana pairs twenty-nine Myaamia, Peoria or Wea texts with English translations, alongside sixteen English texts. Its animal adventures and personal histories were collected between the mid-1890s and 1916.

Fun Facts

• Myaamia iinka, mother, includes a mother's sisters; noohsa, father, includes a father's brothers. Their children share the words for siblings.
• “We” can include the listener—or leave them out. Myaamia distinguishes between a “we” that includes the listener and one that excludes them.