Woccon
/ˈwɒkən/noun
Woccon was an Indigenous people and their now-extinct language of the southeastern United States, especially coastal North Carolina.
Did you know?Woccon is known largely through a short vocabulary recorded by English colonist John Lawson in 1709, making it a rare written glimpse of a language that later disappeared.
Etymological Timeline
Early 18th Century
English
Woccon
“Name used by English colonists for an Indigenous people and their language in North Carolina”
1709
English
Woccon
“Recorded by John Lawson in A New Voyage to Carolina, including a vocabulary of the language”
18th Century
English
Woccon
“Historical name for the people and language as the community declined or merged with neighboring groups”
Modern scholarship
English
Woccon
“Name of an extinct Catawban language, generally classified within the Siouan-Catawban family”
Modern English
English
Woccon
“A historical ethnonym and linguistic designation; the name’s deeper Indigenous origin remains uncertain”