Delaware languages
The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages, are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family. Munsee and Unami were spoken aboriginally by the Lenape people in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States, including western Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware.
Classification
The Lenape language is part of the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family, and is part of the Eastern Algonquian language grouping which is considered to be a genetically related sub-grouping of Algonquian.The languages of the Algonquian family constitute a group of historically related languages descended from a common source language, Proto-Algonquian, which was descended from Algic. The Algonquian languages are spoken across Canada from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast; on the American Plains; south of the Great Lakes; and on the Atlantic coast. Many of the Algonquian languages are now sleeping.
The Eastern Algonquian languages, spoken on the Atlantic coast from what are now called the Canadian Maritime provinces to what is now called North Carolina; many of the languages are now sleeping, and some are known only from very fragmentary records. Eastern Algonquian is considered a genetic subgroup within the Algonquian family, that is, the Eastern Algonquian languages share a sufficient number of common innovations to suggest that they descend from a common intermediate source, Proto-Eastern Algonquian.
The linguistic closeness of Munsee and Unami entails that they share an immediate common ancestor which may be called Common Delaware; the two languages have diverged in distinct ways from Common Delaware.
Several shared phonological innovations support a genetic subgroup consisting of the Delaware languages and Mahican, sometimes referred to as Delawaran. Nonetheless Unami and Munsee are more closely related to each other than to Mahican. Some historical evidence suggests commonalities between Mahican and Munsee.
The line of historical descent is therefore Proto-Algonquian > Proto-Eastern Algonquian > Delawarean > Common Delaware + Mahican, with Common Delaware splitting into Munsee and Unami.
Geographic distribution
Lenni Lenape means 'Human Beings' or the 'Real People' in the Unami language. Their autonym is also spelled Lennape or Lenapi, in Unami Lënape and in Munsee Lunaapeew meaning 'the people.' The term Delaware was used by the English, who named the people for their territory by the Delaware River. They named the river in honor of Lord De La Warr, the governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists used the exonym Delaware for almost all the Lenape people living along this river and its tributaries.It is estimated that as late as the 17th century there were approximately forty Lenape local village bands with populations of possibly a few hundred persons per group. Estimates for the early contact period vary considerably, with a range of 8,000–12,000 given. Other estimates for approximately 1600 AD suggest 6,500 Unami and 4,500 Munsee, with data lacking for Long Island Munsee. These groups were never united politically or linguistically, and the names Delaware, ''Munsee, and Unami postdate the period of consolidation of these local groups. The earliest use of the term Munsee was recorded in 1727, and Unami'' in 1757.
At the time of first contact of Europeans colonizers in the 17th century, the Lenape resided in relatively small communities consisting of a few hundred people. The intensity of contact with European settlers resulted in the gradual displacement of some of the Lenape people from their aboriginal homeland, in a series of population movements of genocidal intent involving forced relocation and consolidation of small local groups, extending over a period of more than two hundred years. This is also referred to as The Long Walk. It was due to the new United States breaking the first treaty it had ever signed. The currently used names were gradually applied to the larger groups resulting from the genocidal forced relocation policy of the United States. The ultimate result was the displacement of virtually all Lenape-speaking people from the region to present-day Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, Upstate New York, and Canada.
Two distinct Unami-speaking groups emerged in Oklahoma in the late 19th century, the Registered Delaware in Washington, Nowata, and Craig Counties, and the Absentee Delaware of Caddo County. Until recently there were a small number of Unami speakers in Oklahoma; the language is now extinct there as a first language, but is spoken fluently as a learned language by enrolled members of the two Delaware tribes in Oklahoma. Some language revitalization work is underway by the Delaware Tribe of Indians.
Equally affected by consolidation and dispersal, Munsee groups moved to several locations in southern Ontario as early as the late 18th century, to Moraviantown, Munceytown, and Six Nations. Several different patterns of migration led to groups of Munsee speakers moving to Stockbridge in present-day Wisconsin, Cattaraugus in present-day New York state, and Kansas. In 1892 the Munsee-Delaware and Moraviantown children were sent to Mount Elgin Residential School where only English language was permitted to be spoken. The Lenape language began its disappearance along the Grand River in Six Nations and to rapidly vanish in Munsee-Delaware Nation. Only in Moraviantown the Lenape language was used on a daily basis from a majority of the nation and help on the preservation of the language. Today Munsee survives only at Moraviantown, where there are two fluent first language speakers aged 77 and 90 as of 2018. There are no fluent speakers left in the Munsee-Delaware nation of the Lenape people living in Canada; however, there are members that are working to revitalize the language within the community.
Language revitalization
From 2009 through at least 2014, a Lenape language class was taught at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The class focused on beginner phrases and grammar, but also included information about the history and culture of the Lenape people. Books used in the class included Conversations in Lenape Language and Advanced Supplements.Dialects and varieties
Munsee and Unami are linguistically very similar. They are both dialects of one language by Lenape speakers, and together are referred to as the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, as can be seen in the Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, written by the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger and published in a translation from German into English by Peter Stephen du Ponceau in 1827. Zeisberger does not even mention the "dialect" names when describing varying grammatical features, while the translator refers to them in two annotations. Despite their relative closeness the two are sufficiently distinguished by features of syntax, phonology, and vocabulary that speakers of both consider them not mutually intelligible so that, more recently, linguists have treated them as separate languages.Munsee Delaware was spoken in the central and lower Hudson River Valley, western Long Island, the upper Delaware River Valley, and the northern third of New Jersey in present-day North Jersey. While dialect variation in Munsee was likely there is no information about possible dialectal subgroupings.
Unami Delaware was spoken in the area south of Munsee speakers in the Delaware River Valley and New Jersey, south of the Delaware Water Gap and the Raritan Valley.
Three dialects of Unami are distinguished: Northern Unami, Southern Unami, and Unalachtigo.
Northern Unami, now extinct, is recorded in large amounts of materials collected by Moravian missionaries but is not reflected in the speech of any modern groups. The Northern Unami groups were south of the Munsee groups, with the southern boundary of the Northern Unami area being at Tohickon Creek on the west bank of the Delaware River and between Burlington and Trenton on the east bank.
The poorly known Unalachtigo dialect is described as having been spoken in the area between Northern and Southern Unami, with only a small amount of evidence from one group.
Southern Unami, to the south of the Northern Unami-Unalachtigo area, is reflected in the Unami Delaware spoken by Delawares in Oklahoma.
Ethnonyms
Names for the speakers of Munsee and Unami are used in complex ways in both English and the Lenape language. The Unami dialect is sometimes called Delaware or Delaware proper, reflecting the original application of the term Delaware to Unami speakers. Both Munsee and Unami speakers use Delaware if enrolled and Lenape if not enrolled as a self-designation in English.The Unamis residing in Oklahoma are sometimes referred to as Oklahoma Delaware, while the Munsees in Ontario are sometimes referred to as Ontario Delaware or Canadian Delaware.
Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use the English term Munsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately to the east and refer to themselves in English as "Delaware", and in Munsee as 'Delaware person, Indian'. Oklahoma Delawares refer to Ontario Delaware as or, terms that are also used for people of Munsee ancestry in their own communities.
Some Delawares at Moraviantown also use the term Christian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English. The equivalent Munsee term is ké·ntə̆we·s, meaning "one who prays, Moravian convert".
Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delawares as Unami in English or in Munsee. The Oklahoma Delawares refer to themselves in English as Delaware and in Unami as.
The name Lenape, which is sometimes used in English for both Delaware languages together, is the name Unami speakers also use for their own language in English, whereas Munsee speakers call their language in English Lunaapeew. Uniquely among scholars, Kraft uses Lenape as a cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups.
Munsee speakers refer to their language as, meaning "speaking the Delaware language".