What is the difference between myaamiaataweenki & Miami-Illinois?
Miami-Illinois is what I call an academic cover term - it is a term that scholars use to refer to a lot of different groups of people, without being specific. It's very useful, sometimes, to have generic words!
Today, most speakers of the language call it myaamiaataweenki.
If you'd like to see what I've written about the language, check out some of my writings!
ceekiši iilaataweenkia 'all kinds of languages'
What are the components (or "word guts") of the word myaaamiaataweenki?
Obviously, myaamia is the name of the people. But how does the other part mean 'language'?
-aatawee is a verb component. We sometimes call it a no-object verb, because, well, it doesn't take an object! (linguists would say it is intransitive)! When this piece appears in a word, it means 'speak a language', so we can use all the ordinary verb endings like myaamiaataweewaaci they speak/are speaking the myaamia language.
That leaves -(e)nki, which is a suffix (ending) on no-object verbs that takes the subject away!
It's sort of like the verb speak & the noun speech in English...
But it's more similar to Spanish sentences like se habla Español Spanish is spoken.