Delaware languages

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Map showing the Lenapehoking region. The Raritan River in central New Jersey is the traditional boundary between Munsee and Unami-speaking peoples.

Delaware is a small language group in the Algonquian language family. It had two closely related languages, Munsee and Unami. Munsee and Unami are not mutually intelligible. The name "Lenape" that is sometimes used for Delaware properly only refers to Unami. ^[1]

Munsee, or Minnisink, was spoken in the upper Delaware River valley (including northern New Jersey), New York, and Long Island Sound area. Munsee is now spoken in parts of Canada, on and near the reservations to which Munsee were removed. There is currently only one fluent native speaker remaining, at the reserve at Moraviantown, Ontario. Until the mid-20th century, there were also speakers at the nearby Munceytown and Six Nations reserves. In the early 20th century, there was also a small speaker community at the Cattaraugus Seneca reservation in upstate New York.

Unami, or Lenape, was spoken in the lower Delaware River valley (including central and southern New Jersey) and was most recently spoken in parts of Oklahoma, where Unami-speakers were removed. It is now extinct, though language revitalization work is underway by the Delaware Tribe of Indians.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Ives Goddard. 1978. "Eastern Algonquian Languages," Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Pages 70-77.
• Marianne Mithun. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge Language Family Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[edit] See also

• Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, Ontario
• Delaware (Lenape) Tribe of Indians
• Delaware Nation of Oklahoma

[edit] External links

• Munsee at Ethnologue
• Unami at Ethnologue