# What is the Language Spoken by the Native Americans in this Youtube Video

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-language-spoken-by-the-native-americans-in-this-youtube-video/1000609>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 22, 2024, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-language-spoken-by-the-native-americans-in-this-youtube-video/1000609 "2024-04-22T07:44:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2024, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-language-spoken-by-the-native-americans-in-this-youtube-video/1000609/1 "2024-04-22T07:44:31Z")

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Spin-off from the excellent [On the Naming of Canada Thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/8).

> [@On the naming of Canada](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-naming-of-canada/1000443/8):
>
> We even have a documentary about it! [[Heritage Minutes: Jacques Cartier] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfKr-D5VDBU)

The natives that Cartier encountered in Gaspé Bay were St. Lawrence Iroquoians. If this video was 100% accurate, the aboriginals would be speaking that language. I really doubt this is case because it went extinct just a few decades after the encounter and the only attestations of it that we have are two short vocabulary lists.

So, I guess that what we hear in the video is another Iroquoian language but which one is it ?

Mohawk or Huron-Wyandot are possible and sort of acceptable stand-ins as they were spoken in areas directly adjacent to the St. Lawrence Iroquoians’ lands and still have native speakers nowadays, although not in their original area as far as Huron-Wyandot is concerned.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2024, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-language-spoken-by-the-native-americans-in-this-youtube-video/1000609/2 "2024-04-22T15:02:53Z")

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This may not be much help, but according to [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4769866/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm), Donnacona in that episode was played by Guy Provencher (1927-2013). I don’t know whether Provencher spoke any native language, though. And even if he did, it’s not necessarily the same one he speaks in the episode, since he might have learned his lines phonetically.