Pidgin Delaware facts for kids

Pidgin Delaware (also known as Delaware Jargon or Trader's Jargon) was a special kind of language called a pidgin. It was created in the 1620s by people who spoke the Unami Delaware language and Dutch traders and settlers. They met along the Delaware River.

A pidgin language forms when groups of people who speak different languages need to talk to each other. They don't know each other's full languages. So, they create a simpler language to communicate. Pidgin languages usually have simpler grammar and fewer words. They are not anyone's first language. Pidgin Delaware helped Europeans and Native Americans trade furs and other goods.

How Pidgin Delaware Started and Spread

Pidgin Delaware first grew between the Dutch and the Unami Delaware people. The Dutch set up trading posts in a place they called New Netherland. This area is now part of the Mid-Atlantic region. They traded goods for furs with the local Native American groups.

Over time, knowledge of Pidgin Delaware spread. Swedish settlers learned it from the Dutch. Later, English settlers learned it from the Swedes. For example, William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania, had a Swedish interpreter. This interpreter used Pidgin Delaware.

Both the Munsee and Unami Delaware people used this pidgin language. They used it when talking with Dutch, Swedish, and English speakers. Some Europeans thought they were speaking the real Delaware language. William Penn himself used words from Pidgin Delaware, thinking it was the actual Delaware language. This shows how widely the pidgin was used for communication.

Where Did Pidgin Delaware's Words Come From?

Most of the words in Pidgin Delaware came from the Unami language. The Unami language is a dialect of Delaware. Even though some early Dutch settlements were in Munsee Delaware territory, the pidgin mostly used Unami words.

The first lasting Dutch settlement in New Jersey was Fort Nassau. It was near what is now Gloucester City. Another early trading post was Fort Wilhelmus. Both of these places were in traditional Unami Delaware land. This means Pidgin Delaware likely started when Dutch settlers first met Unami Delaware speakers in these areas.

How Pidgin Delaware Simplified Grammar

The original Unami Delaware language has very complex grammar. But Pidgin Delaware made things much simpler. It removed many of the difficult grammar rules.

For example, in Unami, nouns and verbs change their endings to show if something is singular (one) or plural (more than one). In Pidgin Delaware, this difference was removed.

Also, in Unami, pronouns (like "I," "you," "he") are often attached to nouns and verbs as prefixes. In the pidgin, separate words were used for pronouns instead. This made it easier for Europeans to learn. The pidgin also removed differences in gender (like "he" or "she") and number (singular or plural) for pronouns.

Here are some examples of how pronouns were simplified:

• "I" or "we" became ne or nee.
• "You" became ke or kee.
• "He," "she," "it," or "they" became yɷ̃ni or une.

These simplified pronouns were used for both singular and plural meanings.

Grammatical Gender: A Big Simplification

One of the biggest simplifications in Pidgin Delaware was how it handled "grammatical gender." In Delaware languages, and many other Native American languages, every noun is either "animate" (like a living thing) or "inanimate" (like an object). This is different from biological gender. For example, a tobacco pipe or a potato might be considered "animate" in the language.

Verbs and other words in a sentence change their form based on the gender of the noun they are connected to. For example, the Unami verb for "I saw it" changes depending on if the "it" is animate or inanimate.

In Pidgin Delaware, this complex system was completely removed. The pidgin used the "inanimate" form of verbs and pronouns for everything. So, if you wanted to say "good friend," even though a friend is a living person (animate), the pidgin used the word for "good" that was usually for inanimate things. This made it much easier for Europeans, who didn't have this concept in their own languages.

Experts believe that Delaware speakers deliberately simplified their language this way. They wanted to make it easier for the small number of Dutch traders to communicate. Early observers noted that when Delaware people spoke among themselves, their language was very complex. But when they talked to Europeans, they used the simplified pidgin. This shows they adapted their language to help with trade and interaction.

Interestingly, Pidgin Delaware did not get much grammar or vocabulary from Dutch or other European languages. Almost all its words came from the Delaware language itself. This is unusual for a pidgin.

Other Pidgin Languages in North America

Pidgin Delaware was not the only pidgin language that formed on the Atlantic coast. Many other pidgins developed when Native American groups met Europeans. For example, there were forms of pidgin English. There were also parts of a pidgin Massachusett language. This was an Eastern Algonquian language spoken north of Delaware territory, in what is now Boston.

It's likely that, just like with Pidgin Delaware, Europeans who learned these other local pidgins thought they were speaking the actual Native American languages.