Munsee
Huluníixsuwaakan
Native toCanada; United States
Regionnow in Ontario; formerly in Delaware, New York (State), New Jersey
Ethnicity400
Native speakers
7–8
Language codes
ISO 639-3umu
Glottologmuns1251
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Munsee is an endangered language that comes from the Native American tribes of Delaware. It is similar in composition to other Algonquin languages coming from the same area [citation needed]. Influences on this specific language include the Unami,and the Mahican cultures that existed in the same area at the same time. There is also evidence to suggest Dutch influence [citation needed]. Munsee has been translated into English as can be seen through prayers and songs.

Currently, Munsee has 8 native speakers whose personal dialects vary from each other. There has been an interest in recent times to preserve this language [citation needed].

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History

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Grammar

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Phonology

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Linguistic Variation

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Currently, Munsee has 8 native speakers whose personal dialects vary from each other. Extensive details about how the language differs between all 8 speakers have been cataloged in a paper by Ives Goddard titled "The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware" which was published in Anthropological Linguistics volume 52. [1]

Phonological variation

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Optional pronunciation of final /-w/

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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". [2]

Particles originally in /-i/ and /-e/

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A large class of particles and pre-words that are usually heard with final /-ɘ/ retained the original /-i/ in the speech of some speakers. [3]

Verb endings originally in /-i/ and /-e/

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Words that end with the negative suffix /-wi/ or the subjunctive suffix /-e/ had variants with final /-ɘ/. [4]

Particles originally in /-Í•wi/

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Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in /-Í·wi/, e.g. [5]

Other lexicalized Variations

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Variation between | a | and | ə |

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Some words have variation between underlying | a | and | ə |. [6] 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. [7]

Variation between short and long vowels

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An initial and three words show variation between short and long vowels. [8] These words are:

ans ~ a·ns- ' scoop': ánsham ~ á•nsham 'he dips up water'

me•xalapó•ti•s ~ me•xa•làpó•ti-s 'spider'

wekó•li•s ~ we•kó•li•s 'whippoorwill'

yankw(ǎ)té•ho•n ~ ya•nkw(ă)té•ho•n 'apron'

Variation between | nš | and | nč |.

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Two words have | nš | varying with with | nč |. [9]T

These words are xwaskó-nšəy ~ xwaskó-nčəy 'corncob' and sànǎkó-nšə̃yak ~ sànǎkó-nčə̃yak 'elderberries'.[10]

Other differences in a single segment

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A number of cases are present where one segment varies or is variably present.[11]

For example, / t / is replaced by / k / in le•làpatíhte•k (etc.) ~ le•làpatíhke•k (etc.) 'juneberry'.[12]

Nouns with variably present /-əw/.

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Some nouns are found with and without a final /-əw/.[13]

Bird names with | l | ~ | n |.

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In two bird names, | l | varies with | n |.[14]

For example: 'taskãmális -~ taskamáni•s 'kingfisher' ; ši•wa•pé•kăli•š ~ ši•wa•pé•kăni•š 'bluebird'.[15]

More complex variation

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Some words have more complex patterns of variation. For example: the word "table" - e•həntáxpwi•nk is the original. The word is sometimes changed to e•həntáxpo•n which is the same word but it is reshaped as a derived noun. [16]

Different words

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Some cases involve different words or "highly divergent variants" used as synonyms. For example, there are 4 ways to say "eyelashes" that are seen in the personal dialects.[17]

Notes

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  1. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 14
  2. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 14
  3. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 14
  4. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 14
  5. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 15
  6. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 15
  7. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 15
  8. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 16
  9. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 16
  10. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 16
  11. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 16-17
  12. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 16-17
  13. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 17
  14. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 17
  15. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 17
  16. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p.17
  17. ^ Goddard, Ives, 2010, p. 18

References

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  • Ives Goddard. 2010. Linguistic Variation in a Small Speech Community: The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware. Anthropological Linguistics 52. 1-48.
  • Prince, John Dyneley. Notes On The Modern Minsi-Delaware Dialect. 1st ed., [Baltimore], American Journal Of Philology, 1901,.
  • Heckewelder, John and Jefferson, Thomas. 2002 [1830s]. Early fragments of Minsi Delaware. (American Language Reprints, 29.) Southampton, PA: Evolution Publ. vi+67pp. (extr. from: Peter Stephen Duponceau: Indian vocabularies. Philadelphia &Thomas Jefferson: A manuscript vocabulary of several Indian languages).
  • O'Meara, John Desmond William. 1990. Delaware stem morphology. University of Montreal. Ann Arbor: UMI. xii+417pp. (Doctoral dissertation).
  • Alden, Timothy. An Account Of Sundry Missions Performed Among The Senecas And Munsees. 1st ed., New-York, Seymour, 1827,.
  • Voegelin, Charles F. "The Lenape and Munsee dialects of Delaware, an Algonquian language." Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Vol. 49. 1939.
  • St. Amour, Louise. 2012. Verbal Morphology of the Southern Unami Dialect of Lenape. Swarthmore College. 51pp. (MA thesis).
  • Blalock, Lucy and Bruce Pearson and James Rementer. 1994. The Delaware Language. Bartlesville, OK: Delaware Tribe of Indians. 88pp.
  • Goddard, Ives. 2009. Notes on Mahican: Dialects, Sources, Phonemes, Enclitics, and Analogies. In Karl Hele and Regna Darnell (eds.), Papers of the 39th Algonquian Conference, 246-315. London, Ontario: The University of Western Ontario.
  • Jacobs, Jaap, and L. H. Roper. The Worlds of the Seventeenth-century Hudson Valley. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014.
  • Oberly, James Warren. A Nation of Statesmen: The Political Culture of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, 1815-1972. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.