Munsee language

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Template:Infobox ethnonym Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, Template:Langx) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of two Delaware languages (also known as Lenape languages, after the tribe's autonym). It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally by Lenape 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, the northern third of New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

As of 2018, Munsee was spoken only on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada, by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90, making it critically endangered. As of 2022, only one elderly native speaker remained. When the number of speakers was somewhat larger, the language was reported to differ between individual speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals. Some researchers and universities have partnered with indigenous communities in an effort to revitalize the language, notably Montclair State University and the University of Toronto.

Classification

Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language, which is the sole recognized genetic subgroup descending from Proto-Algonquian, the common ancestor language of the Algonquian language family. Munsee is very closely related to Unami Delaware. Munsee and Unami constitute the Delaware languages, comprising a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. Taken together with Mahican, the Delaware languages constitute Delawaran, a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The term Munsee developed as an English name for the aggregated group that formed along the upper Delaware River north of the Delaware Water Gap. Other Munsee dialect speakers joined the Minisink group;Template:Sfn the earliest recorded mention of Munsee dates from 1725.Template:Sfn Minisink is a Munsee term meaning 'at the island', and is to be transcribed . It is the locative form of a now disused word 'island' (no source given, not a form given in records and not a normal Munsee noun ending; viz. , ; form suggests 'small island'); cognates in other Algonquian languages are e.g. Ojibwe Template:Transliteration, 'island'.Template:Sfn Orthographic Template:Angbr in the form Minisink is the modern Munsee locative suffix (discussed below in the Grammar section). The term Munsee is the English adaptation of a regularly formed word, ('person from Minisink').

Over time the British extended the term Munsee to any speaker of the Munsee language. Attempts to derive Munsee from a word meaning 'stone' or 'mountain,' as proposed by Brinton, are incorrect.Template:Sfn Kraft's claim that Munsee is not an indigenous term, and that it results from a "corruption" of English use of Minisink is incorrect. The term follows a regular pattern of Munsee word formation.Template:Sfn

Ethnonyms

Names for the speakers of Munsee are used in complex ways in both English and in Munsee. The Unami language is sometimes treated as "Delaware" or "Delaware proper", reflecting the original application of the term Delaware to Unami speakers,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but Munsee speakers use Delaware as a self-designation in English.Template:Sfn The term Delaware was originally applied by British colonists to Unami speakers living along the Delaware River, which is named after Lord De La Warr, the first governor of Virginia. The term was gradually extended to refer to all Delaware groups.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Munsee in Ontario are sometimes referred to as "Ontario Delaware" or "Canadian Delaware".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use the English term Munsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately Template:Convert to the east. In English, Moraviantown residents call themselves Delaware, and in Munsee 'Delaware person, Indian'.Template:Sfn

Some Delaware at Moraviantown also use the term Christian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English.Template:Sfn The equivalent Munsee term is ('one who prays, Moravian convert').Template:Sfn Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delaware as Unami in English or in Munsee.Template:Sfn The English term Lenape is of Unami origin,Template:Sfn and is used in English as a self-designation by speakers of Unami;Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Exceptionally among scholars, Kraft uses Lenape as an English-language cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups, while noting that this usage is "not entirely appropriate".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Munsee speakers refer to their language as , literally 'speaking the Delaware language'.Template:Sfn

Geographic distribution

Speakers of Munsee originally resided in the greater Manhattan area, the drainage of the Lower Hudson River valley, and the upper Delaware River. The arrival of European explorers, traders and settlers resulted in the progressive displacement of Munsee people over a period of several centuries. Munsee groups affected by this process ultimately moved away from their homeland to communities in both the United States and Canada.

In the 20th century, surviving Munsee speakers in Canada lived at Six Nations, Ontario; Munceytown, Ontario; and Moraviantown Reserve. Now extinct in the first two locations, the language is used only by a few elders at Moraviantown, Ontario.

Since the early 21st century, the language has been taught to tribal members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Native Americans, and the Delaware Nation, Moraviantown Reserve.

Original location

The southern boundary of Munsee territory was the area north of the Delaware Water Gap, following the river system southeast along the Raritan River to the Atlantic Ocean.Template:Sfn To the south of the Munsee were the Unami Delaware. To the north were the Algonquian Mahican, and to the east were the Eastern Long Island peoples, who also spoke Algonquian languages, such as Unquachog (also spelled Unkechaug)Template:Sfn and southern New England languages, such as Quiripi. (Quiripi and Unquachog are likely members of a dialect continuum of a single language.)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Aboriginally, and for a period subsequent to the arrival of Europeans, Munsee was spoken within a series of small and largely autonomous local bands, located primarily within the drainage of the Hudson and upper Delaware rivers, the major river systems of the area. The general pattern, found throughout the Eastern Algonquian area, was one in which indigenous groups resided along the drainages of major river systems, with divisions between upriver and downriver groupings.Template:Sfn Named groups were found on the major tributaries; they developed larger sites on the main streams and smaller camps at the headwaters and on feeder streams.Template:Sfn Estimates vary, but these local groups may have had a population of up to two hundred people each.Template:Sfn These groups spoke localized varieties of the language now called Munsee, but there is little information on dialect variation within the Munsee-speaking area.Template:Sfn

The primary known named Munsee groups, from north to south on the west side of the Hudson River, were the

• Esopus, west of the Hudson River in the Hudson River watershed (with subgroups the Waoranecks, Warranawankongs, and others);
• Minisink (above the Delaware Water Gap);
• Haverstraw, Tappan, and Hackensack, south of the Hudson Highlands west of the Hudson River;
• Raritan, who originally resided on the lower Raritan River and moved inland;
• Wiechquaeskeck, from east of the Hudson who migrated to the lower Raritan after 1649; with the
• Navasink, to the east along the north shore of New Jersey east of the Delaware River.

The Wappinger were to the east of the upper Hudson; below them going north to south on the east bank of the Hudson were the

• Kichtawank;
• Sinsink;
• Rechgawawank;
• Nayack;
• Marechkawieck, with the Canarsee and Rockaway on western Long Island; and
• Massapequa and Matinecock on central Long Island, who may have been Munsee or perhaps were the predecessors of the Unquachog group identified in the eighteenth century.Template:Sfn

The disruptions resulting from the entry of European settlers, fur traders, and explorers led to the displacement of these local groups. They gradually consolidated into larger groups that brought together speakers from the different groups within the Munsee-speaking area.Template:Sfn

Phonology

Munsee phonology is complex but regular in many regards. Metrical rules of syllable weight assignment play a key role in the assignment of word-level stress, and also determine the form of rules of vowel syncope that produce complex but mostly regular alternations in the forms of words.Template:Sfn Word-level stress is largely predictable, with exceptions occurring primarily in loan words, reduplicated forms, and in words where historical change has made historically transparent alternations more opaque.Template:Sfn

Consonants

Munsee has the following inventory of consonants; International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values are given in brackets.Template:Sfn

Munsee Delaware Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop		p	t	č Template:IPAblink	k
Fricative			s	š Template:IPAblink	x	h
Nasal		m	n
Approximant		w	l	y Template:IPAblink

Some loan words from English contain and : 'there is a fair going on'; 'my tire.'Template:Sfn

Vowels

Munsee Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i· Template:IPAblink, i Template:IPAblink		o· Template:IPAblink, o Template:IPAblink
Mid	e· Template:IPAblink, e Template:IPAblink	ə
Low		a· Template:IPAblink, a Template:IPAblink

Different analyses of the Munsee vowel system have been proposed. Goddard (1979) presents an analysis in which Munsee and Unami have the same vowel system, unchanged from the Proto-Eastern-Algonquian vowel system (discussed in the History section below).Template:Sfn In this analysis, there are four long vowels and two short vowels . Vowel length is indicated with a raised dot (·). However, in modern Munsee there are several sources of new short that arise from such sources as reduplication, loan words, and other various phonological changes, and that cannot be derived from other underlying vowels. Hence an analysis in which there are four positions that have contrastive vowel length as well as , is appropriate.Template:Sfn

The short vowel has the phonetic value . Short has values centring on , with occurring before (where 'C' represents any stop or the lateral consonant). Short has values centring on . The long vowels have the primary values , , , and , with varying to , and after labial consonants.Template:Sfn

Syllable weight

Syllable weight plays a significant role in Munsee phonology, determining stress placement and the deletion of certain short vowels. All syllables containing long vowels are strong. Any short vowel in a closed syllable (i.e. (C)VC) is strong. Counting left to right, in a sequence of two or more open syllables containing short vowels, the odd-numbered syllable is weak and the even-numbered syllable is strong.Template:Sfn As well, certain syllables containing short vowels (frequently such syllables occur in reduplicated syllables and loan words) must exceptionally be marked as strong.

In words longer than two syllables, the final syllable is excluded from consideration of stress placement, i.e. is extrametrical, and the last strong syllable preceding the final syllable in the word receives the main stress.

(a) 'rifle' (strong penultimate, receives primary stress)

(b) 'if I see him' (weak penultimate, preceding syllable receives primary stress)

In disyllabic words a strong penultimate syllable receives primary stress.

(a) 's/he gets up from lying down' (disyllabic Strong-Strong)

In a disyllable with a weak penultimate syllable, the final syllable is strong, and receives primary stress.

(a) 'stone' (disyllabic Weak-Strong)

Grammar

The grammar of Munsee is characterized by complex inflectional and derivational morphology. Inflection in Munsee is realized through the use of prefixes and suffixes added to word stems to indicate grammatical information, including number (singular or plural), gender, person, possession, negation, obviation, and others.

Nouns use combinations of person prefixes and suffixes to indicate possession and suffixes to indicate gender, number, diminutive, absentive, and obviation.

Verbs use a single set of person prefixes and a series of suffixes in position classes after the verb stem to indicate combinations of person, number, negation, obviation, and others.

Writing system

There is no standard writing system for Munsee. Linguists have tended to use common phonetic transcription symbols of the type found in the International Phonetic Alphabet or similar Americanist symbols in order to represent sounds that are not consistently represented in conventional standard writing systems.

Europeans writing down Delaware words and sentences have tended to use adaptations of European alphabets and associated conventions. The quality of such transliterated renditions has varied widely, as Europeans attempted to record sounds and sound combinations they were not familiar with.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A practical orthography for Munsee has been created in the context of various language preservation and documentation projects. A recent bilingual dictionary of Munsee uses a practical orthography derived from a linguistic transcription system for Munsee.Template:Sfn The same system is also used in a recent word book produced locally at Moraviantown.Template:Sfn The related Unami language is written using a distinct practical orthography.

Writing system samples

The table below presents a sample of Munsee words, written first in a linguistically oriented transcription, followed by the same words written in a practical system.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The linguistic system uses a raised dot (·) to indicate vowel length. Although stress is mostly predictable, the linguistic system uses the acute accent to indicate predictable main stress. In addition predictable voiceless or murmured is indicated with the breve accent (˘). Similarly, the breve accent is used to indicate an ultra-short that typically occurs before a single voiced consonant followed by a vowel.

The practical system indicates vowel length by doubling the vowel letter and maintains the linɡuistic system's practices for marking stress and voiceless/ultra-short vowels. The practical system uses orthographic Template:Angbr for the phonetic symbol , and Template:Angbr for the phonetic symbol .Template:Sfn

Comparison of linguistic and practical orthographies for MunseeTemplate:Sfn

Linguistic	Practical	English
		needle
		six
		sinew, muscle
		log, timber
		I forgot it
		his older brother
		seven
		I am named so and so
		swamp, pond
		eight
		bread
		he smokes
		he is young
		it is ripe
		chief
		bear
		he whispers
		chair
		muskrat
		it is dry

Linguistic variation

In a 2010 paper titled "The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware", Ives Goddard studied extensively how there were personal dialectal differences between eight native Munsee speakers from the 1960s.Template:Sfn However, as of April 2022, only one fluent speaker of Munsee remained, an elderly woman named Dianne Snake.

Phonological variation

Optional pronunciation of final

Nouns and verbs that end in -i·w, -e·w and -a·w; some speakers often dropped the -w. This drop also carried over into "careful speech".Template:Sfn

Particles originally in and

A large class of particles and pre-words that are usually heard with final retained the original in the speech of some speakers.Template:Sfn

Verb endings originally in and

Words that end with the negative suffix or the subjunctive suffix had variants with final .Template:Sfn

Particles originally in

Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in , e.g.Template:Sfn

Other lexicalized variations

Variation between | a | and | ə |

Some words have variation between underlying | a | and | ə |.Template:Sfn It is possible to determine which vowel is older and which might be the innovation by using evidence from other Algonquin languages, other Munsee communities and earlier sources.Template:Sfn

Variation between short and long vowels

An initial and three words show variation between short and long vowels.Template:Sfn These words are:

~ - 'scoop': ~ 'he dips up water'

~ 'spider'

~ 'whippoorwill'

~ 'apron'

Variation between | nš | and | nč |

Two words have | nš | varying with | nč |.Template:Sfn

These words are ~ 'corncob' and ~ 'elderberries'.Template:Sfn

Other differences in a single segment

A number of cases are present where one segment varies or is variably present.Template:Sfn

For example, is replaced by in (etc.) ~ (etc.) 'juneberry'.Template:Sfn

Nouns with variably present

Some nouns are found with and without a final .Template:Sfn

Bird names with | l | ~ | n |

In two bird names, | l | varies with | n |.Template:Sfn

For example: ~ 'kingfisher'; ~ 'bluebird'.Template:Sfn

More complex variation

Some words have more complex patterns of variation. For example: the word 'table' – is the original. The word is sometimes changed to which is the same word but it is reshaped as a derived noun.Template:Sfn

Different words

Some cases involve different words or "highly divergent variants" used as synonyms. For example, there are four ways to say 'eyelashes' that are seen in the personal dialects.Template:Sfn

Variation origination

There is no community norm, as the more widely used variants do not define a community norm for either the speakers or the linguist. Additionally, some variants cannot be rated as more and less popular or acceptable. "Even a normative description would have to give both or all of them".Template:Sfn

Some variation originates externally. Some usages can be traced directly to the Northern Unami language that was earlier spoken by some members of the Munsee community.Template:Sfn

Some variation originates internally. These pronunciations and grammatical tendencies are likely to have emerged in the not too distant past.Template:Sfn

History

Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language. The hypothetical common ancestor language from which the Eastern Algonquian languages descend is Proto-Eastern Algonquian (PEA). An intermediate group, Delawaran, a descendant of Proto-Eastern Algonquian, consists of Mahican and Common Delaware, the latter being a further subgroup comprising Munsee Delaware and Unami Delaware.Template:Sfn The justification for Delawaran as an intermediate subgroup rests upon the high degree of similarity between Mahican and the two Delaware languages, but relatively little detailed argumentation in support of Delaware has been adduced.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Munsee is demonstrably phonologically conservative, and is considered to have retained many of the phonological characteristics of PEA. In comparison, Unami has undergone extensive phonological innovation, coupled with morphological regularization.Template:Sfn

The PEA vowel system consisted of four long vowels *i·, *o·, *e·, *a·, and two short vowels *a and ə. The vowel history is as follows: *i· (from PEA merger of Proto-Algonquian (PA *i· and *i to PEA *i·), *o· (from PEA merger of PA *o· and *o ), *e· (from Proto-Algonquian *e·), and *a· (from Proto-Algonquian *a·; the short vowels are*ə (from Proto-Algonquian *e), and *a (from Proto-Algonquian *a). This system was continued down to Common Delaware,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but Munsee and Unami have innovated separately with respect to the vowel systems.

Contrastive vowel length for Munsee high vowels has been reintroduced, and also for the front mid-vowels. For modern Munsee it is necessary to recognize long and short . Innovating instances of short arise from for example reduplicating syllables and loan words.

See also

• Delaware People
• Monsey, New York

External links

• Lunaapeew Language, Delaware Nation Language, Cultural and Historical Department
• Template:Usurped
• Language & Culture Committee, Stockbridge Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians
• Native Languages of the Americas: Munsee Delaware (Minsi, Muncey, Minisink)
• Collection of Hymns, in Muncey and English, for the Use of the Native Indians, 1874
• OLAC resources in and about the Munsee language
• Munsee Delaware Grammar – Lunaapeew, Huluníixsuwaakan, Munsíiw, Delaware Site devoted to the study of the Munsee Delaware language