Unami language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Unami
Native to	Eastern United States
Region	Around the lower Delaware and Hudson rivers in the United States; some Unami groups in Oklahoma
Extinct	2002
Language family	Algic Algonquian Eastern Algonquian Delaware Unami
Map showing the aboriginal boundaries of Delaware territories, with Munsee territory and Unami dialectal divisions indicated. The territory of the poorly known Unalachtigo dialect of Unami is not clearly indicated, but is presumed to be approximately in the area of "Sankhikan" on the map.
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Unami (which is Wënami èlixsuwakàn in the language itself) was a language spoken by the Lenape people. The Lenape are also known as the Delaware Indians.

In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Unami was spoken in parts of what are now New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Later, some Unami speakers moved to Ontario, Canada, and Oklahoma in the United States. Unami is one of two main Delaware languages; the other is called Munsee.

Sadly, the last person who spoke Unami fluently in the United States, Edward Thompson, passed away on August 31, 2002. His sister, Nora Thompson Dean (1907–1984), shared a lot of important information about the language with experts.

The name "Lenni-Lenape" means "Original People." The Lenape had special names for their homelands. They called New Jersey Scheyichbi, which means "water's edge." Their ancient homeland, where both Unami and Munsee speakers lived, was called Lenapehoking, meaning "in the land of the Delaware Indians." English settlers later named the river running through this area after Lord De La Warr, the first governor of the Jamestown Colony. Because of this, they called the people living there "Delaware Indians."

History of Unami

Unami belongs to a group of languages called Eastern Algonquian. All these languages come from an older language called Proto-Eastern Algonquian (PEA). Unami and Munsee are closely related, and they both come from a language called Common Delaware.

Over time, Unami changed a lot in how its sounds were made and how its words were put together, compared to Munsee.

The way vowels (like A, E, I, O, U) were used in Unami also changed over centuries. Older forms of the language had different long and short vowel sounds. These sounds developed uniquely in Unami and Munsee.

Bringing Unami Back

Even though Unami has no fluent speakers left, there are groups working hard to bring the language back to life.

• The Delaware Tribe of Indians, located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, has a special program called the Lenape Language Preservation Project. They teach a modern version of the Southern Unami dialect.
• The Delaware Nation in Anadarko, Oklahoma, also spoke this same dialect.
• Both tribes have made recordings of native speakers and created written lessons. These materials help people learn the language today.

In the 1700s, a missionary named John Heckewelder wrote down some information about the Northern Unami dialect. Today, a group called Lenape Texts & Studies has published many of these older writings, translated into English. These efforts are all part of trying to save the Unami language.

Unami Sounds (Phonology)

Languages have different sounds, like consonants and vowels. Unami had its own unique set of sounds.

Consonants

Consonants are sounds like 'p', 't', 'k', 's'. Unami had special "long" consonants, which were held for a bit longer than regular ones. For example, the 'k' sound in one word might be short, while in another, it could be long. This small difference could change the meaning of a word.

Here is a chart of the main consonant sounds in Unami:

Vowels

Vowels are sounds like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'. Unami had both long and short vowel sounds. Some vowels were considered "strong" and others "weak," which affected how words were spoken.

Here are the main long vowel sounds:

And here are the main short vowel sounds:

How Sounds Combine

Unami words could have different combinations of consonants and vowels. For example, some consonants could be followed by 'w'.

Word Stress

In Unami, the stress (or emphasis) on a word usually followed a pattern. It often fell on a certain vowel in the word, making that part sound stronger.

How Unami Words Are Built (Morphology)

Unami is a language where words are built by adding many small parts (like LEGO bricks) to a main word. This means a single word can carry a lot of meaning.

Nouns

Nouns are words for people, places, or things. In Unami, nouns were grouped in special ways:

• Gender: Nouns were either animate (living things) or inanimate (non-living things).
  • Animate nouns included people, animals, spirits, and trees. Surprisingly, some things like "snow" and "my fingernail" were also animate!
  • Inanimate nouns included most fruits, vegetables, and things like "water" or "my leg."
  • Sometimes, an inanimate noun could be treated as animate if it was spoken to directly, like if you were talking to a stone.

• Obviation: This is a way to show which of several third-person nouns (he, she, it, they) is the most important or "main" one in a sentence. The main one is called "proximate," and the others are "obviative."

• Presence: This showed if a third-person noun was present or absent from the conversation. For example, if you were talking about someone who had passed away, you would use a special "absentative" ending, even if their body was physically there.

Verbs

Verbs are action words. Unami verbs are very complex. They change their form to show who is doing the action, how many people are involved, and even when the action happened.

Here are the personal pronouns (words like "I," "you," "we") in Unami:

Word Parts (Affixes)

Unami uses small parts added to words to change their meaning.

• Prefixes: These are added to the beginning of a verb. For example, 'n-' for "I," 'k-' for "you," and 'w-' for "he/she/it." There's a rule called the "2-1-3 precedence rule" that decides which prefix to use if more than one person is involved in the action. Basically, "you" comes before "I," and "I" comes before "he/she/it."

• Suffixes: These are added to the end of a verb. They can show many things, like:
  • If the verb is about an animate or inanimate object.
  • If something is small (a "diminutive"). For example, adding a suffix could change "came" to "the little one came."
  • If something is plural (more than one).
  • If the action is negative (didn't happen).
  • When the action happened (past or present).

How Unami Sentences Are Made (Syntax)

Unami is a "polysynthetic" language. This means that a single verb can often contain enough information to be a whole sentence in English. Because of this, the order of words in a sentence is much more flexible than in English.

Here are some examples of Unami sentences:

• ta heč tɔllí·ksi·n ne·k ma·nšá·p·iyak? (What color are those beads?)
• še· lah ni e·k·aɔ́·kwe [tali-]phɔkhakéhɔ·n ní·ša awé·ni·k (Over there under the trees two people were buried.)
• mi·mə́nsak šokw təli-ahi-pe·nháto·n (But the children's footprints are numerous.)
• na hont náni tənnə́mən níkahke pi·lae·č·əč·ínka (Then that's what those boys did.)

Images for kids

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  Map showing the aboriginal boundaries of Delaware territories, with Munsee territory and Unami dialectal divisions indicated.

See also

In Spanish: Lengua unami para niños