European fishermen and explorers of the eastern North American coast encountered a great variety of indigenous peoples who spoke a babel of different languages Most of these distinct tongues, however, belonged to just four or five language families, or groups of related languages: Eastern Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan-Catawba, Timucuan, and Muskogean. Along the coast and immediately inland, from the Canadian Maritimes to North Carolina, the native inhabitants spoke Eastern Algonquian languages. Consequently they are often referred to collectively as Coastal Algonquians. Although the languages of the Coastal Algonquians exhibit considerable diversity, each shared features with its immediate neighbors and often a certain amount of mutual intelligibility. In addition, neighboring groups often had cultural traits in common, which also fostered intergroup communication. The primary languages included within this eastern branch of the larger Algonquian family are Micmac (Canadian Maritimes); Maliseet-Passamaquoddy (western New Brunswick and eastern Maine...