Delaware languages

Delawarisch or Lenape is a or - depending on his assessment - two closely related Algonquian languages ​​spoken by the ethnic groups of the Unami and Munsee in the group of the Lenni Lenape originally in the area of the Delaware River to the present-day cities of Philadelphia and New York, with the expulsion of the speaker westward spread in Midwest states of the U.S. and finally in Oklahoma (USA) and in Ontario (Canada) was spoken. In Moraviantown in Ontario are still alive some speakers of Munsee, while the last native speakers of Unami died in Oklahoma in 2002. There are efforts in both Lenape groups to make children again flowing speakers.

• 9.1 Christian texts
• 9.2 Miscellaneous

Subdivision and self-description

Therefore Munsee and Unami are very close and are especially in the past as dialects of the " language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware " (English Language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians ) have been treated so well by the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger, in his grammar in the description of varying grammatical structures do not even know the names of the members of this " dialects " mentioned. Since the dialects differ significantly despite their similarity in their syntax, phonology and vocabulary and spokesmen for both dialects these feel as heavy or not mutually intelligible, they are treated more recently as own languages.

The speakers of both languages ​​delawarischen call themselves Lenni Lenape, "True people ", or just Lenape, "People". Is on this Unami / ləná ː pe / spoken and written Lënape on Munsee / ləná ː pe ː w / spoken and written Lunaapeew. A proper name of the language to Munsee is Huluníixsuwaakan / hələ̆ni xsəwá · · kan / and Unami Lënapei èlixsuwakàn / ləná · pe · Eli xsuwá · kan /. Language generally means Lixsëwakàn / li · · xsuwá kan /.

While Lenape So is the proper name of the speaker, and so also in English on all variants of the language can be related to the Lenape language name is sometimes applied only to the Unami, whereas Delaware denotes both dialects or languages ​​. The term Lunaapeew but certainly used by the Munsee as a language name in English-speaking context.

The exonym "Delaware" comes from the English settlers, the first of the Delaware River after Lord Baron De La Warr, the governor of the Jamestown colony (Virginia) named and then the indigenous people living there. This name was also obtained when the Lenni Lenape long no longer lived there, and still known their languages.

Distinguish it from other Algonquian languages

Unlike in the neighboring Southern New England Algonquian languages ​​at Lenape supposed Ur -eastern Algonquian * is r realized as l to historical times even more than r, so that one of "R - dialects " or "L- dialects " speaks during can be found in the neighborhood " N- dialects " and "Y - dialects " [ j]. The word for man is accordingly to Unami lënu, lunuw on Munsee Delaware Pidgin 17th century rhenus, in the "Y- dialects " Pequot - Mohegan [y ] in and Plains Cree iyiniw, the " N- dialect " Narragansett NNIN mind on Ojibwe Inini. Adopted Great- Eastern Algonquian * θ is realized as x, while in the eastern neighbors instead s occurs. For example, say " it's red " màxke on Unami and Munsee maxkeew on, in the neighboring Pequot - Mohegan musqáyuw against it; Wife's name is on Delawarisch xkwe or oxkweew, on the other hand, Mohegan Pequot SQA and Narragansett squaws.

Historical language area

The Lenni Lenape were one of the first ethnic groups in North America in the early 17th century with the Europeans in contact, with the Swedes and the Dutch. At that time she lived in the region around the lower Hudson River and the Delaware River. Munsee was spoken in the Western Long Iceland, at the lower Hudson area of New York City, adjacent areas of New York State and also on the Delaware in northern New Jersey. The language area of the Unami lay to the south of it in southern New Jersey and in neighboring areas in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In the 19th century, most speakers of Munsee lived in Ontario in Moraviantown, Munceytown and Six Nations, where their descendants still live today. Only in Moraviantown there are some old people who speak Delawarisch as their mother tongue. The descendants of the Unami - speaking populations are found today mainly to Anadarko and Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where the last fluent speaker Edward Thompson of Bartlesville died on 31 August 2002. His sister Nora Thompson Dean (1907-1984) played a central role in the documentation of the language.

Language monuments

Most delawarischen texts date from the time of the mission by the Moravians in the Munsee in Pennsylvania and Ohio end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, where it is translations of excerpts from the Bible, Christian songs and other Christian texts. Of significance include a translation of a harmony of the four Gospels ( History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ) by Samuel Lieberkühn by David Zeisberger ( Elekup Nihillalquonk woak Pemauchsohalquonk Jesus Christ), translations of stories from the Old and the New Testament of Abraham Luckenbach, a translation of the three epistles of John by CF Denke and also of David Zeisberger translate Christian hymns. David Zeisberger also wrote a dictionary and a grammar in German language, which were preserved as manuscripts in the library Moravians in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) and posthumously published in English translation as books for his missionary colleagues.

In the 17th century John wrote Campanius a translation of the Small Catechism of Martin Luther in the so-called by him " American- Bobwhite language" in New Sweden ( published posthumously in 1696 ), in which it was Delaware Pidgin.

An important document in the Lenape language Unami is published by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Walam Olum, in which the origin of the world and the Lenni Lenape is described. The authenticity of this document is, however, questioned repeatedly.

Through the activities of Nora Thompson Dean in Oklahoma also some stories on Unami are documented as sound recordings. More recently, Lenape legends have been translated from English into Unami Lenape -.

Phonology

Consonants

The Delaware has the following consonants:

Vowels

The Munsee has four long vowels and five short, the medium central vowel ( schwa ) is always short:

The Unami has six long and short vowels, the Middle central vowel ( schwa ) can therefore also be long:

Spelling systems

Actually for the delawarischen languages ​​have different systems have been used. Historically, of utmost importance that based on the German spelling system of the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger, which used this for his books in the Christian Munsee is. Even today, these books make up a large portion of the resulting delawarischen text corpus.

Linguists use in their publications to a phonemic writing for the Algonquian languages ​​whose characters are partly taken from the International Phonetic Alphabet, but also partially Latin alphabets of Slavic languages.

Today, the Unami and the Munsee of Oklahoma Ontario use different spelling systems. The differences can be in the following table with words of both dialects are taken.

Vocabulary

The following table shows the differences in pronunciation and spelling of Unami and Munsee, beyond the traditional spelling of the Delawarischen the mission time of the 18th and 19th century and the Delaware Pidgin of the 17th century, where r stands still instead of l.

Use in American literature

James Fenimore Cooper used the name Chingachgook for one of his heroes in the cycle of novels Leatherstocking. This name, meaning " large snake " appears in this form as a word example in a list of large creatures in a Moravian missionary John Heckewelder correspondence with the Munsee on indigenous languages ​​. Since the delawarische spelling of the Moravian -oriented Germans, the delawarische word / xiŋɡaxgo ː k / Chingachgook was written and pronounced as in German (ch at the beginning and in the middle as " Ah - According to" / x /, formed from chingue " large" and achgook " snake "). In the Unami language of the 20th century called " big snake " xinkwi xkuk / xiŋɡwixku ː k /. Cooper took the name apparently without knowing about the debate about it. Since then, the name of the fictional character is opposite to the correct pronunciation / tʃiŋɡatʃgu ː k / spoken, and not only in English but also in German and in Russian, where the name is transcribed as Чингачгук. The name of his son Uncas, who has little in common with the historic Mohegan sachem Uncas is, however, taken from the Pequot - Mohegan, where woks / Waks / " fox " means, while the corresponding delawarische word woakus ( historically ) or òkwës / okwəs / ( Unami ) is, in the language of the Mahican, with whom Cooper throws the Mohegan in a pot " Mohicans ", waugoos [us ]. Chingachgook also finds a place in a DEFA film from 1967, Chingachgook, the Great Snake, in its original German-language version of the two are ch spoken differently, namely / tʃiŋɡaxgo ː k /.

Delawarische literature

Christian texts

• Abraham Luckenbach, Samuel Lieberkühn: Scripture narratives from the New Testament in the Delaware language. 1801 ~ 1806. 158 pages.
• Nek Nechenenawachgissitschik Bambilak naga Geschiechauchsitpanna Johannessa Elekhangup. The three epistles of the Apostle John. Translated into Delaware Indian, by C. F. Denke. Daniel Fanshaw, New York 1818. Google Books.
• Elekup Nihillalquonk woak Pemauchsohalquonk Jesus Christ. The history of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: comprehending all that the four evangelists have recorded Concerning him: all Their relations being Brought together in one narration, so did no circumstance is omitted, but did inestimable history is continued in one series, in the very words of Scripture. Translated into Delaware by David Zeisberger. Daniel Fanshaw, New York, 1821. Online on archive.org. Translation of the work of Samuel Lieberkühn: The story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the four Evangelists pulled together. Moved and can be found in the bookstore of the Evangelical Brethren, bey CE Senft. Gnadau 1820. Online on archive.org.

Others

• Constantine Samuel Rafinesque: The Walam Olum, or Red Score, of the Lenape. In: Daniel Garrison Brinton: The Lenape and Their legends. D. G. Brinton, Philadelphia 1885. Pp. 169-217.

Literature on the Delawarische

• Daniel G. Brinton, Albert Seqaqkind Anthony (ed.): A Lenape - English dictionary. From an anonymous ms. in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethlehem. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1888. ( Dictionary is mainly based on texts by David Zeisberger, Heckewelder and Johann Johann Ettwein. ) Online on archive.org, on gilwell.com
• David Zeisberger: Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. Translated from the German manuscript of the author by Peter Stephen du Ponceau. With a preface and notes by the translator. The Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. James Kay, Jr., Philadelphia 1827. Online on archive.org.
• Eben Norton Horsford (Ed.): Zeisberger 's Indian dictionary - English, German, Iroquois - the Onondaga and Algonquin - the Delaware. John Wilson & Son, Cambridge (Massachusetts ), 1887. Online on archive.org.
• Lunaapeew Dictionary. Delaware Nation Council, Moraviantown 1992
• Ives Goddard: The Delaware Language, Past and Present. In: Herbert C. Kraft (eds.). A Delaware Indian Symposium, pp. 103-110. Anthropological Series No.. 4 Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg 1974.
• Ives Goddard: Comparative Algonquian. In: Lyle Campbell, Marianne Mithun (eds.): The languages ​​of Native America, pp. 70-132. University of Texas Press, Austin 1979.
• Ives Goddard: Delaware. In: Bruce Trigger ( ed.): Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, Northeast, pp. 213-239. The Smithsonian Institution, Washington in 1978.
• Ives Goddard: Pidgin Delaware. In: Sarah G. Thomason (ed.): Contact Languages ​​: A Wider Perspective, pp. 43-98. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam 1997.
• James Hammond Trumbull: Notes on Forty Versions of the Lord 's Prayer in Algonkin Languages ​​. Transactions of the American Philological Association 3 January 1872. Pp. 157-160. 16 Delaware: renapi, of New Sweden. Pp. 161-168. 17 Delaware: Lenni Lenape of Northern Pennsylvania.
• Daniel Garrison Brinton: The Lenape and Their legends: with the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and on inquiry into its authenticity. D. G. Brinton, Philadelphia 1885. Online on archive.org. Chapter VII The Walam Olum: 's origin, authenticity and contents. Pp. 148-168. The Walam Olum, or Red Score, of the Lenape. Pp. 169-217.
• Bartosz Hlebowicz: Why Care about Lënapei lixsëwakàn? Ethnography of the Lenape Language Loss. Journal on Ethno Politics and Minority Issues in Europe 11 (1 ), 2012, pp. 142-163.