Munsee language facts for kids

Map showing the aboriginal boundaries of Delaware territories, with Munsee territory the lightly shaded northernmost area, and Unami to the south

Munsee (also called Munsee Delaware) is a special language that is part of the Eastern Algonquian group. This language group belongs to the larger Algonquian family, which is a branch of the even bigger Algic language family.

Munsee is one of two Delaware languages, also known as Lenape languages. It is very similar to the Unami Delaware language, but they are different enough to be considered separate languages.

Long ago, Munsee was spoken in the area around what is now New York City in the United States. This included places like western Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island. It was also spoken in nearby mainland areas such as southeastern New York State, the northern part of New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania.

Sadly, Munsee is now a critically endangered language. As of 2018, only two elderly people, aged 77 and 90, spoke it on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada. In 2021, there were reports of eight speakers, but the language is still in great danger of disappearing. Each speaker has their own unique way of speaking, like a personal dialect. Younger people are showing interest in learning the language, which is a hopeful sign.

Language Family and History

Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language. This means it comes from a very old language called Proto-Algonquian. Munsee is very closely related to Unami Delaware. Together, Munsee and Unami are known as the Delaware languages.

The name "Munsee" came from English speakers. It was used for groups of people who lived along the upper Delaware River. The word "Minisink" is a Munsee term meaning "at the island." The English then adapted this word to "Munsee" to describe the people from that area.

Names for Munsee Speakers

The people who speak Munsee use different names for themselves and their language. In English, they often call themselves "Delaware." This name was first given by British settlers to Unami speakers living along the Delaware River. Over time, it was used for all Delaware groups.

Munsee speakers in Ontario, Canada, are sometimes called "Ontario Delaware" or "Canadian Delaware." People living at Moraviantown call themselves "Delaware" in English. In their own language, they say /lənáːpeːw/, which means "Delaware person" or "Indian."

Some Delaware people at Moraviantown also like to be called "Christian Indian" in English. In Munsee, this is ké·ntə̆we·s, meaning "one who prays." When Munsee speakers talk about Delaware people in Oklahoma, they call them "Unami" in English or /wə̆ná·mi·w/ in Munsee.

Where Munsee Was Spoken

Munsee speakers originally lived in the greater Manhattan area, along the lower Hudson River valley, and the upper Delaware River. When European explorers and settlers arrived, the Munsee people slowly had to move away from their homes over many centuries.

In the 1900s, the few remaining Munsee speakers in Canada lived at Six Nations, Munceytown, and Moraviantown Reserve. Today, the language is only spoken by a few elders at Moraviantown, Ontario.

Recently, the language has started to be taught to members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Native Americans and the Delaware Nation, Moraviantown Reserve.

Original Home Areas

The southern border of Munsee territory was north of the Delaware Water Gap. It followed the river system southeast along the Raritan River to the Atlantic Ocean. South of the Munsee were the Unami Delaware. To the north were the Mahican people, who also spoke an Algonquian language. To the east were other Algonquian-speaking groups on Long Island.

In the past, Munsee was spoken by many small, independent groups. These groups lived mainly along the Hudson and upper Delaware rivers. They usually lived along major river systems, with some groups upriver and others downriver. Each group spoke a slightly different version of Munsee.

Some of the main Munsee groups were:

• The Esopus, west of the Hudson River.
• The Minisink, above the Delaware Water Gap.
• The Haverstraw, Tappan, and Hackensack, south of the Hudson Highlands.
• The Raritan, who lived on the lower Raritan River.
• The Wappinger, Kichtawank, Sinsink, Rechgawawank, Nayack, and Marechkawieck, who lived on the east side of the Hudson River.
• The Canarsee, Rockaway, Massapequa, and Matinecock, who lived on Long Island.

As Europeans arrived, these groups were forced to move and often joined together. This brought speakers from different Munsee-speaking areas closer.

Sounds and Grammar

Munsee has its own unique sounds and rules for how words are formed. These rules help decide which part of a word gets the most emphasis (stress) and how some vowels change.

Munsee Sounds

Like English, Munsee has consonants and vowels. Some sounds might be a bit different from what you're used to. For example, the sound written as "ch" in English is like the "ch" in "church." The sound written as "sh" is like the "sh" in "shoe."

Munsee has both short and long vowels. A long vowel sounds like it's held out longer, similar to how some words in English have long vowel sounds.

How Words Are Built

The grammar of Munsee is quite complex. It uses many prefixes (small parts added to the beginning of a word) and suffixes (small parts added to the end of a word). These additions change the meaning of words and show things like:

• If something is singular or plural (one or many).
• Who owns something.
• Who is doing the action (I, you, he/she).
• If something is negative (not happening).

Nouns (names of people, places, things) use prefixes and suffixes to show who owns them, if they are singular or plural, and other details.

Verbs (action words) use prefixes and a series of suffixes to show who is doing the action, how many people are involved, and if the action is negative.

How Munsee Is Written

There isn't one official way to write Munsee. Linguists (people who study languages) often use special symbols, like those from the International Phonetic Alphabet, to write down the sounds exactly as they are spoken.

In the past, Europeans tried to write down Munsee words using their own alphabets. This often led to different spellings because they weren't used to the sounds of Munsee.

Today, a practical writing system has been created for Munsee. This system is used in a bilingual dictionary and a word book made at Moraviantown. It helps people learn and preserve the language.

Examples of Munsee Words

Here are some examples of Munsee words, showing how they are written in a linguistic way (for language experts) and a more practical way (for everyday use). The practical system often doubles vowels to show a long sound, and uses "sh" for [ʃ] and "ch" for [tʃ].

How Munsee Varies Among Speakers

Even though there are only a few Munsee speakers left, their personal ways of speaking can be a bit different from each other. This means that some words might be pronounced or used slightly differently by different people.

These differences can come from a few places:

• Some ways of speaking might have come from the Northern Unami language, which was spoken by some people in the Munsee community a long time ago.
• Other differences might have developed more recently within the Munsee community itself.

Linguists have studied these "personal dialects" to understand all the ways Munsee is spoken.

See also

In Spanish: Munsee para niños