Munsee
Huluníixsuwaakan Monsii èlixsuwakàn
Native to	Canada;United States
Region	now inOntario; formerly inNew York,New Jersey,Pennsylvania
Ethnicity	400Munsee (1991)[1]
Native speakers	1 (2022)
Language family	Algic Algonquian Eastern Algonquian Delawaran[2][3][4] Delaware Munsee
Language codes
ISO 639-3	umu
Glottolog	muns1251
ELP	Munsee
Munsee
Coordinates: 42.57, –81.879[5]
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Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware,Delaware:Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn) is anendangered language of theEastern Algonquian subgroup of theAlgonquian language family, itself a branch of theAlgic language family. Munsee is one of twoDelaware languages (also known asLenape languages, after the tribe's autonym). It is very closely related to theUnami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally by Lenape in the vicinity of the modernNew York City area in theUnited States, including westernLong Island,Manhattan Island,Staten Island, as well as adjacent areas on the mainland:southeastern New York State, the northern third ofNew Jersey, and northeasternPennsylvania.^[6][3]

As of 2018, Munsee was spoken only on theMoraviantown Reserve inOntario,Canada, by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90,^[7][8][9] making it critically endangered.^[5] As of 2022, only one elderly native speaker remained.^[10] When the number of speakers was somewhat larger, the language was reported to differ between individual speakers, each having a personal dialect.^[11] There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals.^[12][13] Some researchers and universities have partnered with indigenous communities in an effort torevitalize the language, notablyMontclair State University^[14] and theUniversity of Toronto.^[10]

Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language, which is the sole recognized genetic subgroup descending fromProto-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 withMahican, the Delaware languages constituteDelawaran, a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian.^[15][16]

The termMunsee developed as an English name for the aggregated group that formed along the upper Delaware River north of theDelaware Water Gap. Other Munsee dialect speakers joined the Minisink group;^[17] the earliest recorded mention of Munsee dates from 1725.^[18]Minisink is a Munsee term meaning'at the island', and is to be transcribedmə̆nə́sənk. It is the locative form of a now disused word/mənə́s/'island' (no source given, not a form given in records and not a normal Munsee noun ending; viz.manan,manhan; form suggests'small island'); cognates in other Algonquian languages are e.g. Ojibweminis,'island'.^[19] Orthographic⟨ink⟩ in the formMinisink is the modern Munsee locative suffix/-ənk/ (discussed below in the section "Grammar"). The termMunsee is the English adaptation of a regularly formed word,mə́n'si·w'person from Minisink'.

Over time the British extended the termMunsee to any speaker of the Munsee language. Attempts to deriveMunsee from a word meaning'stone' or'mountain', as proposed byBrinton, are incorrect.^[20]Kraft's claim thatMunsee 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.^[21]

Names for the speakers of Munsee are used in complex ways in bothEnglish 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,^[22][23] but Munsee speakers useDelaware as a self-designation in English.^[24] The termDelaware was originally applied by British colonists to Unami speakers living along theDelaware River, which is named afterLord De La Warr, the first governor of Virginia. The term was gradually extended to refer to all Delaware groups.^[25][26]

The Munsee in Ontario are sometimes referred to as "Ontario Delaware" or "Canadian Delaware".^[27][24] Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use the English termMunsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately 50 km (31 mi) to the east. In English, Moraviantown residents call themselvesDelaware, and in Munsee/lənáːpeːw/'Delaware person, Indian'.^[28]

Some Delaware at Moraviantown also use the termChristian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English.^[29] The equivalent Munsee term iské·ntə̆we·s'one who prays, Moravian convert'.^[20] Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delaware asUnami in English or/wə̆ná·mi·w/ in Munsee.^[27] The English termLenape is of Unami origin,^[30] and is used in English as a self-designation by speakers of Unami;^[18][31][32]

Exceptionally among scholars, Kraft usesLenape as an English-language cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups, while noting that this usage is "not entirely appropriate".^[23][30]

Munsee speakers refer to their language as/hə̀lə̆ni·xsəwá·kan/, literally'speaking the Delaware language'.^[33]

Speakers of Munsee originally resided in the greater Manhattan area, the drainage of the LowerHudson 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 atSix Nations, Ontario;Munceytown, Ontario; andMoraviantown 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 theStockbridge-Munsee Band ofMohican Native Americans, and theDelaware Nation, Moraviantown Reserve.

The southern boundary of Munsee territory was the area north of the Delaware Water Gap, following the river system southeast along theRaritan River to the Atlantic Ocean.^[34] To the south of the Munsee were the Unami Delaware. To the north were the AlgonquianMahican, and to the east were the Eastern Long Island peoples, who also spoke Algonquian languages, such asUnquachog (also spelledUnkechaug)^[35] and southern New England languages, such asQuiripi. (Quiripi and Unquachog are likely members of a dialect continuum of a single language.)^[36][37]

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 whichindigenous groups resided along the drainages of major river systems, with divisions between upriver and downriver groupings.^[38] 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.^[39] Estimates vary, but these local groups may have had a population of up to two hundred people each.^[6] These groups spoke localized varieties of the language now called Munsee, but there is little information on dialect variation within the Munsee-speaking area.^[40]

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

• Esopus, west of theHudson 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 lowerRaritan 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.^[41]

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.^[6]

Munsee phonology is complex but regular in many regards.Metrical rules of syllable weight assignment play a key role in the assignment of word-levelstress, and also determine the form of rules of vowelsyncope that produce complex but mostly regular alternations in the forms of words.^[42] 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.^[43]

Munsee has the following inventory of consonants;International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values are given in brackets.^[44]

Someloanwords from English contain/f/ and/r/:fé·li·n'there is a fair going on';ntáyrəm'my tire'.^[43]

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 theHistory section below).^[44] In this analysis, there are four long vowels/i·,o·,e·,a·/ and two short vowels/a,ə/. Vowel length is indicated with a raised dot (·). However, in modern Munsee there are several sources of new short/i,o,e/ 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/ə/, is appropriate.^[43]

The short vowel/i/ has the phonetic value[ɪ]. Short/a/ has values centring on[ʌ], with[a] occurring before[hC] (where 'C' represents any stop or the lateral consonant). Short/o/ has values centring on[ʊ]. The long vowels/iː,eː,aː,oː/ have the primary values[iː],[ɛː],[aː], and[oː], with/a/ varying to[ɑ], and[ɒ] after labial consonants.^[45]

Syllable weight plays a significant role in Munsee phonology, determining stress placement and the deletion of certain short vowels. All syllables containing long vowels arestrong. 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 isweak and the even-numbered syllable is strong.^[46] 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. isextrametrical, and the last strong syllable preceding the final syllable in the word receives the main stress.

(a)payaxkhı́·kan'rifle' (strong penultimate, receives primary stress)

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

In disyllabic words a strong penultimate syllable receives primary stress.

(a)á·mwi·w'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)ăsə́n'stone' (disyllabic Weak-Strong)

The grammar of Munsee is characterized by complexinflectional andderivationalmorphology. Inflection in Munsee is realized through the use of prefixes and suffixes added to word stems to indicate grammatical information, includingnumber (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.

There is no standard writing system for Munsee. Linguists have tended to use common phonetic transcription symbols of the type found in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet or similarAmericanist symbols in order to represent sounds that are not consistently represented in conventional standard writing systems.^[47]

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.^[48][49]

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.^[50][51] The same system is also used in a recent word book produced locally at Moraviantown.^[52] The related Unami language is written using a distinctpractical orthography.

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.^[43][50] 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/ă/ is indicated with the breve accent (˘). Similarly, the breve accent is used to indicate an ultra-short[ə] that typically occurs before a single voiced consonant followed by a vowel.^[53]

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⟨sh⟩ for the phonetic symbol/š/, and⟨ch⟩ for the phonetic symbol/č/.^[50]

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.^[54] However, as of April 2022, only one fluent speaker of Munsee remained, an elderly woman named Dianne Snake.^[10]

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".^[54]

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.^[54]

Words that end with the negative suffix/-wi/ or the subjunctive suffix/-e/ had variants with final/-ɘ/.^[54]

Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in/-Í·wi/, e.g.^[55]

Some words have variation between underlying| a | and| ə |.^[55] 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.^[55]

An initial and three words show variation between short and long vowels.^[56] 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'

Two words have| nš | varying with| nč |.^[56]

These words arexwaskó-nšəy ~xwaskó-nčəy'corncob' andsànǎkó-nšə̃yak ~sànǎkó-nčə̃yak'elderberries'.^[56]

A number of cases are present where one segment varies or is variably present.^[57]

For example,/t/ is replaced by/k/ inle·làpatíhte·k (etc.) ~le·làpatíhke·k (etc.)'juneberry'.^[57]

Some nouns are found with and without a final/-əw/.^[58]

In two bird names,| l | varies with| n |.^[58]

For example:taskãmális ~taskamáni·s'kingfisher';ši·wa·pé·kăli·š ~ši·wa·pé·kăni·š'bluebird'.^[58]

Some words have more complex patterns of variation. For example, the word'table' –e·həntáxpwi·nk is the original. The word is sometimes changed toe·həntáxpo·n, which is the same word but it is reshaped as a derived noun.^[58]

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.^[59]

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."^[60]

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.^[60]

Some variation originates internally. These pronunciations and grammatical tendencies are likely to have emerged in the not too distant past.^[60]

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.^[16] 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.^[16][61][62]

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 morphologicalregularization.^[43]

The PEA vowel system consisted of four long vowels*i·, *o·, *e·, *a·, and two short vowels*a andə. 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,^[43][44] 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/i·,o·,e·,a·/ and short/i,o,e,a/. Innovating instances of short/i,o,ande/ arise from for example reduplicating syllables and loan words.

• Lenape
• Monsey, New York

• Blalock, Lucy; Pearson, Bruce; Rementer, James (1994).The Delaware Language. Bartlesville, OK: Delaware Tribe of Indians.
• Brinton, Daniel G.;Anthony, Albert Seqaqkind (1888).A Lenâpé-English dictionary. From an anonymous manuscript in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem. Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
• Lunaapeew Dictionary. Basic Words. Part One. Moraviantown: Delaware Nation Council. 1992.
• Goddard, Ives (1974a). "Dutch Loanwords in Delaware". In Kraft, Herbert C. (ed.).A Delaware Indian Symposium. Anthropological Series. Vol. 4. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. pp. 153–160.
• Goddard, Ives (1977). "Some early examples of American Indian Pidgin English from New England".International Journal of American Linguistics.43:37–41.doi:10.1086/465453.S2CID 143757299.
• Goddard, Ives (1979a). "Comparative Algonquian". In Campbell, Lyle; Mithun, Marianne (eds.).The Languages of Native America. Austin: Austin : University of Texas Press. pp. 70–132.ISBN 0-292-74624-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Goddard, Ives (1994). "The West-to-East Cline in Algonquian Dialectology". In Cowan, William (ed.).Papers of the 25th Algonquian Conference. Ottawa: Carleton University. pp. 187–211.ISSN 0831-5671.
• Michelson, Truman (1922).[Field notes collected at Moraviantown and Six Nations]. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Ms. 1635.
• Mithun, Marianne (1999).The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press.
• Pearson, Bruce (1988).A Grammar of Delaware: Semantics, Morpho-Syntax, Lexicon, Phonology. Dewey, OK: Touching Leaves Indian Crafts.
• Zeisberger, David (1887). Horsford, Ebenezer N. (ed.).Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary, English, German, Iroquois — the Onondaga, and Algonquin — the Delaware. Cambridge, Massachusetts: John Wilson.

• Lunaapeew Language, Delaware Nation Language, Cultural and Historical Department
• Munsee, Ramapough Lenaape Nation
• Language & Culture Committee, Stockbridge Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians
• "Native American Audio Collections: Delaware".American Philosophical Society. Archived fromthe original on March 2, 2013. RetrievedMay 20, 2013.
• 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

• Eastern Algonquian languages
• Indigenous languages of the North American eastern woodlands
• First Nations languages in Canada
• Indigenous languages of Pennsylvania
• Native American history of New York (state)
• Native American history of Pennsylvania
• Endangered Algic languages
• Munsee

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