Unami language

language
name=Unami
nativename=Lenape
familycolor=American
states=United States
region=formerly New Jersey, Oklahoma
speakers=extinct
fam1=Algic
fam2=Algonquian
fam3=Eastern Algonquian
fam4=Delaware
iso3=unm

Unami (also known as Delaware, Lenni-Lenape, Lenape) is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but later in Oklahoma. Speakers have shifted to English. [Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. "Ethnologue: Languages of the World". 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.]

"Lenape" is from IPA|/lənaːpːe/, a word in the Unami dialect whose most literal translation into English would be “the real people”. [Composed of IPA|/lən/-, "original, real, ordinary" + IPA|/-aːpːe/, "person"] [Bright, William (2004). "Native American Place Names in the United States". Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg. 251] (The common schoolbook term, "Lenni-Lenape" is not correct, but translates as, “the original real-people”). The Lenape names for the area they inhabited were "Scheyichbi", which means, “the place bordering the ocean”, and Lenapehoking, meaning “place where the people live”, although the latter is not universally accepted as historical. [ [http://www.lenapelifeways.org/map.htm Lenapehoking Map] , showing approximate locations of Lenape Indian Bands, Lenape Lifeways website (accessed December 16, 2007)]

The Order of the Arrow, an affililate of the Boy Scouts of America, attempts to preserve some legends and language elements of Lenape tribe. However, numerous local lodges of the Order of the Arrow do not emulate the customs of the Lenape alone, but mingle the Lenape customs with those of completely dissimilar tribes (e.g., the Cherokee).

A modern version of the Southern Unami dialect called Western Delaware is being taught by the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma. It is called Western because it was spoken by the Delaware Indians in the Western part of Oklahoma. The tribe has created tapes of native speakers and written lessons available for sale, in an attempt to preserve the language.

ounds / Phonology

Unami has been analysed as having contrastive long and short stop and fricative consonants. [Goddard, Ives, 1979, p. vi; for a consonant chart see also Ives Goddard, 1997, “Pidgin Delaware,” "Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective," Sarah G. Thomason, ed., Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 43-98.] The raised dot /·/ is used to indicate length of a preceding consonant or vowel. A full analysis of the status of the long consonants is not available, and more than one analysis of Delaware consonants has been proposed. The contrastive long consonants are described as having low functional yield, that is they differentiate relatively few pairs of words, but nonetheless do occur in contrasting environments. Delaware consonantal phonology is complex, and there are also rules that lengthen consonants in certain environments. [Goddard, Ives, 1979, pp. 22, xii (rule U-6); p. 26 (rule U-27)]

Consonants and vowels

Unami vowels are presented as organized into contrasting long-short pairs. [Goddard, Ives, 1997: 45] One asymmetry is that high short /u/ is paired with long /o·/, and the pairing of long and short /ə/ is noteworthy.

Notes

References

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=unm Ethnologue entry for Unami]
* Goddard, Ives. 1979. "Delaware Verbal Morphology." New York: Garland.

Links

* [http://www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us/ Delaware (Lenape) Tribe of Indians]
* [http://delawarenation.com Delaware Nation of Oklahoma]
* [http://www.talk-lenape.org/ Lenape Talking Dictionary]