The Wampanoag tribes affiliated with the WLRP refer to the language as (), possibly back-rendered into the colonial spelling as , 'Wampanoag language' to refer not only to the varieties used historically by the Wampanoag people, but also to the Massachusett language as a whole. The name derives from (), 'east' or 'dawn,' and thus signifies 'language of the easterners' or 'language of the people of the dawn.' Modern speakers of the revived dialect shorten this to () (Wampanoag), even though this technically refers only to the people.