User:BhavishyV/sandbox

Munsee
Huluníixsuwaakan
Native to	Canada; United States
Region	now in Ontario; formerly in Delaware, New York (State), New Jersey
Ethnicity	400
Native speakers	7–8
Language family	Algic Algonquian Eastern Algonquian Delaware Munsee
Language codes
ISO 639-3	umu
Glottolog	muns1251

Munsee is an endangered language that comes from the Native American tribes of Delaware. It is similar in composition to other Algonquin languages coming from the same area ^{[citation needed]}. Influences on this specific language include the Unami,and the Mahican cultures that existed in the same area at the same time. There is also evidence to suggest Dutch influence ^{[citation needed]}. Munsee has been translated into English as can be seen through prayers and songs.

Linguistic Variation

Currently, Munsee has 8 native speakers whose personal dialects vary from each other. Extensive details about how the language differs between all 8 speakers have been cataloged in a paper by Ives Goddard titled "The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware" which was published in Anthropological Linguistics volume 52.

Phonological variation

Optional pronunciation of final /-w/

Nouns and verbs that end in -i•w, -e•w and -a•w, some speakers often dropped the -w. This drop also carried over into "careful speech".

Particles originally in /-i/ and /-e/

A large class of particles and pre-words that are usually heard with final /-ɘ/ retained the original /-i/ in the speech of some speakers.

Verb endings originally in /-i/ and /-e/

Words that end with the negative suffix /-wi/ or the subjunctive suffix /-e/ had variants with final /-ɘ/.

Particles originally in /-Í•wi/

Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in /-Í·wi/, e.g.

Other lexicalized Variations

Variation between | a | and | ə |

Some words have variation between underlying | a | and | ə |. It is possible to determine which vowel is older and which might be the innovation by using evidence from other algonquin languages, other Munsee communities and earlier sources.

Variation between short and long vowels

An initial and three words show variation between short and long vowels. These words are:

ans ~ a·ns- ' scoop': ánsham ~ á•nsham 'he dips up water'

me•xalapó•ti•s ~ me•xa•làpó•ti-s 'spider'

wekó•li•s ~ we•kó•li•s 'whippoorwill'

yankw(ǎ)té•ho•n ~ ya•nkw(ă)té•ho•n 'apron'

Variation between | nš | and | nč |.

Two words have | nš | varying with with | nč |. T

These words are xwaskó-nšəy ~ xwaskó-nčəy 'corncob' and sànǎkó-nšə̃yak ~ sànǎkó-nčə̃yak 'elderberries'.

Other differences in a single segment

A number of cases are present where one segment varies or is variably present.

For example, / t / is replaced by / k / in le•làpatíhte•k (etc.) ~ le•làpatíhke•k (etc.) 'juneberry'.

Nouns with variably present /-əw/.

Some nouns are found with and without a final /-əw/.

Bird names with | l | ~ | n |.

In two bird names, | l | varies with | n |.

For example: 'taskãmális -~ taskamáni•s 'kingfisher' ; ši•wa•pé•kăli•š ~ ši•wa•pé•kăni•š 'bluebird'.

More complex variation

Some words have more complex patterns of variation. For example: the word "table" - e•həntáxpwi•nk is the original. The word is sometimes changed to e•həntáxpo•n which is the same word but it is reshaped as a derived noun.

Different words

Some cases involve different words or "highly divergent variants" used as synonyms. For example, there are 4 ways to say "eyelashes" that are seen in the personal dialects.

References

• Ives Goddard. 2010. Linguistic Variation in a Small Speech Community: The Personal Dialects of Moraviantown Delaware. Anthropological Linguistics 52. 1-48.

• Prince, John Dyneley. Notes On The Modern Minsi-Delaware Dialect. 1st ed., [Baltimore], American Journal Of Philology, 1901,.

• Heckewelder, John and Jefferson, Thomas. 2002 [1830s]. Early fragments of Minsi Delaware. (American Language Reprints, 29.) Southampton, PA: Evolution Publ. vi+67pp. (extr. from: Peter Stephen Duponceau: Indian vocabularies. Philadelphia &Thomas Jefferson: A manuscript vocabulary of several Indian languages).

• O'Meara, John Desmond William. 1990. Delaware stem morphology. University of Montreal. Ann Arbor: UMI. xii+417pp. (Doctoral dissertation).

• Costa, David J. New Voices for Old Words : Algonquian Oral Literatures. University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1021996&site=ehost-live.

• Alden, Timothy. An Account Of Sundry Missions Performed Among The Senecas And Munsees. 1st ed., New-York, Seymour, 1827,.

• Voegelin, Charles F. "The Lenape and Munsee dialects of Delaware, an Algonquian language." Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Vol. 49. 1939.

• St. Amour, Louise. 2012. Verbal Morphology of the Southern Unami Dialect of Lenape. Swarthmore College. 51pp. (MA thesis).

• Blalock, Lucy and Bruce Pearson and James Rementer. 1994. The Delaware Language. Bartlesville, OK: Delaware Tribe of Indians. 88pp.

• Goddard, Ives. 2009. Notes on Mahican: Dialects, Sources, Phonemes, Enclitics, and Analogies. In Karl Hele and Regna Darnell (eds.), Papers of the 39th Algonquian Conference, 246-315. London, Ontario: The University of Western Ontario.

• Jacobs, Jaap, and L. H. Roper. The Worlds of the Seventeenth-century Hudson Valley. Albany: SUNY Press, 2014.

• Oberly, James Warren. A Nation of Statesmen: The Political Culture of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohicans, 1815-1972. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.