The Algic (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) languages are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian family, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada. The other Algic languages are the Yurok and Wiyot of northwestern California, which despite their geographic proximity are not closely related. All these languages are thought to descend from Proto-Algic, a second-order protolanguage reconstructed using reconstructed Proto-Algonquian and the attested languages Wiyot and Yurok.
The term "Algic" was first coined by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in his Algic Researches, published in 1839. Schoolcraft defined the term as "derived from the words Alleghany and Atlantic, in reference to the race of Indians anciently located in this geographical area." Schoolcraft's terminology was not retained. The peoples he called "Algic" were later included among the speakers of Algonquian languages.
When Edward Sapir proposed that the well-established Algonquian family was genetically related to the Wiyot and Yurok languages of northern California, he applied the term Algic to this larger family. The original Algic homeland is thought to have been located in the American Northwest somewhere between the suspected homeland of the Algonquian branch (to the west of Lake Superior according to Goddard) and the earliest known location of the Wiyot and Yurok (along the middle Columbia River according to Whistler).
All Algic languages still spoken are endangered. Yurok is thought to have ten or fewer speakers. Extinct Algic languages include Wiyot, Miami-Illinois, Etchemin, Loup A, Loup B, Mahican, Massachusett, Mohegan-Pequot, Nanticoke, Narragansett, Pamlico, the Penobscot dialect of Abnaki, Powhatan, Quiripi-Naugatuck, Unami, Unquachog, and Shinnecock. The last known Wiyot speaker died in 1962.
Within the Algonquian subfamily, there is a smaller genetic grouping of the Eastern Algonquian languages. The other (non-Eastern) Algonquian languages have sometimes been categorized into two smaller subgroups: Central Algonquian and Plains Algonquian. However, these two subgroups are not based on genetic relationship but are rather geographic or areal subgroups. (See Algonquian languages.)
