Assiscunk Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River in southwestern New Jersey in the United States.
59-717: The name Assiscunk (also spelled Assiscunke or Essiscunk) came from the Lenape language meaning "muddy creek". The name of the creek was also applied to the Axion people , a band of Lenape Indians who lived in the region until the late 17th century. Other names were Wissahisk River, Birch Creek, and Barracks Creek. Assiscunk Creek is approximately 17-mile (27 km) long, and drains an area of approximately 60 square miles (160 km) of Burlington County , New Jersey. It originates in Springfield Township , and soon forms
118-645: A stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in New Jersey is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Lenape language The Delaware languages , also known as the Lenape languages (Delaware: Lënapei èlixsuwakàn ), are Munsee and Unami , two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family . Munsee and Unami were spoken aboriginally by
177-494: A Southern New England subgroup. Costa develops the proposal in some detail, providing arguments based upon several shared innovations found within SNEA. Costa, largely following Siebert, proposes that the following languages are assigned to SNEA: Massachusett, Narragansett, Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk (probably also including Western and Niantic), Quiripi-Naugatuck, Unquachog, and Loup A. Etchemin may also have been part of this group but
236-565: A genetic subgroup consisting of the Delaware languages and Mahican , sometimes referred to as Delawaran . Nonetheless Unami and Munsee are more closely related to each other than to Mahican. Some historical evidence suggests commonalities between Mahican and Munsee. The line of historical descent is therefore Proto-Algonquian > Proto-Eastern Algonquian > Delawarean > Common Delaware + Mahican, with Common Delaware splitting into Munsee and Unami. Lenni Lenape means 'Human Beings' or
295-577: A genetic subgroup. Similarities among subsets of some of the Eastern Algonquian languages have led to several proposals for further subgroupings within Eastern Algonquian: Abenakian, Southern New England Algonquian (SNEA), and Delawaran, with the latter consisting of Mahican and Common Delaware, a further subgroup. The amount of evidence for each subgrouping varies, and the incomplete record for many parts of
354-514: A number of kindred tribes and tribal members, the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (partly administered by Darryl Jamieson), theater and educational company Atelier Jaku, record labels Joyful Noise Recordings and Stone Tapes , and producer Yonatan Gat (founder and curator of Stone Tapes). The labor involved in this endeavor includes educational symposia, storytelling presentations, traditional ceremonies, and especially
413-495: A number of phonological innovations and lexical features with Maliseet-Passamaquoddy and Eastern and Western Abenaki. The proposed Abenakian subdivision comprises Eastern and Western Abenaki as well as Maliseet-Passamaquoddy; several phonological innovations are shared by the three languages. Goddard notes the similarities shared by the Southern New England languages. Siebert made the first explicit proposal for
472-478: A proposal made by Siebert, Costa adduces evidence indicating an east-west split with the SNEA subgroup. On both phonological and lexical grounds, a distinction within SNEA can be made between a Western SNEA group consisting of the languages of central and Eastern Long Island, Connecticut and southern Rhode Island: Mohegan-Pequot-Montauk, Quiripi-Naugatuck, and Unquachog; and an Eastern group consisting of Massachusett and Narragansett. Loup, probably aboriginally found on
531-959: A self-designation in English. The Unamis residing in Oklahoma are sometimes referred to as Oklahoma Delaware , while the Munsees in Ontario are sometimes referred to as Ontario Delaware or Canadian Delaware. Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use the English term Munsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately 50 km (31 mi) to the east and refer to themselves in English as "Delaware", and in Munsee as /lənáːpeːw/ 'Delaware person, Indian'. Oklahoma Delawares refer to Ontario Delaware as /mwə́nsi/ or /mɔ́nsi/ , terms that are also used for people of Munsee ancestry in their own communities. Some Delawares at Moraviantown also use
590-485: A separate genetic subgroup within Algonquian. Two other recognized groups of Algonquian languages, Plains Algonquian and Central Algonquian , are geographic but do not refer to genetic subgroupings. A consensus classification of the known Eastern Algonquian languages and dialects by Goddard (1996) is given below with some emendation, for example treatment of Massachusett and Narragansett as distinct languages. In
649-480: A significant number of phonological rules in common. For example, both languages share the same basic rules for assigning syllable weight and stress. However, Unami has innovated by regularizing the assignment of stress in some verb forms so that the penultimate syllable is stressed even when the stress assignment rule would predict stress on the antepenultimate syllable. As well, Unami has innovated relative to Munsee by adding phonological rules that significantly change
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#1732793847077708-547: A writing system with conventional phonetic symbols. The table below presents a sample of Unami words, written first in a linguistically oriented transcription, followed by the same words written in a practical system. The linguistic system uses the acute accent to indicate predictable stress and a raised dot (·) to indicate vowel and consonant length. The practical system interprets the contrast between long and corresponding short vowels as one of quality, using acute and grave accents to indicate vowel quality. Stress, which as noted
767-503: Is considered a genetic subgroup within the Algonquian family , that is, the Eastern Algonquian languages share a sufficient number of common innovations to suggest that they descend from a common intermediate source, Proto-Eastern Algonquian. The linguistic closeness of Munsee and Unami entails that they share an immediate common ancestor which may be called Common Delaware; the two languages have diverged in distinct ways from Common Delaware. Several shared phonological innovations support
826-540: Is part of the Eastern Algonquian language grouping which is considered to be a genetically related sub-grouping of Algonquian . The languages of the Algonquian family constitute a group of historically related languages descended from a common source language, Proto-Algonquian , which was descended from Algic. The Algonquian languages are spoken across Canada from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast; on
885-401: Is predictable, and consonant length are not indicated in the practical system. The table below presents a sample of Munsee words, written first in a linguistically oriented transcription, followed by the same words written in a practical system. The linguistic system uses a raised dot ⟨·⟩ to indicate vowel length. Although stress is mostly predictable, the linguistic system uses
944-464: Is reflected in the following borrowed words. More recent borrowings tend to be from English such as the following Munsee loan words: ahtamó·mpi·l 'automobile'; kátəl 'cutter'; nfó·təw 's/he votes'. There is one known Swedish loan word in Unami: típa·s 'chicken', from Swedish tippa , 'a call to chickens'. There is no standard writing system for either Munsee or Unami. However,
1003-525: Is the name Unami speakers also use for their own language in English, whereas Munsee speakers call their language in English Lunaapeew . Uniquely among scholars, Kraft uses Lenape as a cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups. Munsee speakers refer to their language as /hə̀lə̆ni·xsəwá·kan/ , meaning "speaking the Delaware language". Munsee and Unami have similar but not identical inventories of consonants and vowels, and have
1062-792: Is used to indicate length of a preceding consonant or vowel. A full analysis and description of the status of the long consonants is not available, and more than one analysis of Delaware consonants has been proposed. Some analyses only recognize long stops and fricatives as predictable, i.e. as arising by rule. 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. Both languages have rules that lengthen consonants in certain environments. Several additional consonants occur in Munsee loan words: /f/ in e.g. nə̀fó·ti 'I vote'; /r/ in ntáyrəm . A number of alternate analyses of Munsee and Unami vowels have been proposed. In one,
1121-531: The Delaware Water Gap and the Raritan Valley . Three dialects of Unami are distinguished: Northern Unami, Southern Unami, and Unalachtigo. Northern Unami, now extinct, is recorded in large amounts of materials collected by Moravian missionaries but is not reflected in the speech of any modern groups. The Northern Unami groups were south of the Munsee groups, with the southern boundary of
1180-519: The Lenape people in the vicinity of the modern New York City area in the United States , including western Long Island , Manhattan Island , Staten Island , as well as adjacent areas on the mainland: southeastern New York State , eastern Pennsylvania , New Jersey , Connecticut, Maryland, and Delaware . The Lenape language is part of the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family, and
1239-482: The bog turtle , which is considered a threatened and endangered species. The creek is designated as suboptimal under Habitat Analysis, and has moderately impaired waters, a major improvement from recent decades when the river was designated as severely impaired or having marginal habitat conditions. Pollution is a problem for the Assiscunk Creek, and much of this comes from non-point sources. The land around
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#17327938470771298-627: The exonym Delaware for almost all the Lenape people living along this river and its tributaries. It is estimated that as late as the 17th century there were approximately forty Lenape local village bands with populations of possibly a few hundred persons per group. Estimates for the early contact period vary considerably, with a range of 8,000 – 12,000 given. Other estimates for approximately 1600 AD suggest 6,500 Unami and 4,500 Munsee, with data lacking for Long Island Munsee. These groups were never united politically or linguistically, and
1357-657: The 'Real People' in the Unami language. Their autonym is also spelled Lennape or Lenapi , in Unami Lënape and in Munsee Lunaapeew meaning 'the people.' The term Delaware was used by the English, who named the people for their territory by the Delaware River . They named the river in honor of Lord De La Warr , the governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia . The English colonists used
1416-610: The Absentee Delaware of Caddo County. Until recently there were a small number of Unami speakers in Oklahoma; the language is now extinct there as a first language, but is spoken fluently as a learned language by enrolled members of the two Delaware tribes in Oklahoma. Some language revitalization work is underway by the Delaware Tribe of Indians. Equally affected by consolidation and dispersal, Munsee groups moved to several locations in southern Ontario as early as
1475-654: The American Plains; south of the Great Lakes; and on the Atlantic coast. Many of the Algonquian languages are now sleeping. The Eastern Algonquian languages , spoken on the Atlantic coast from what are now called the Canadian Maritime provinces to what is now called North Carolina ; many of the languages are now sleeping, and some are known only from very fragmentary records. Eastern Algonquian
1534-485: The Delaware languages and Mahican have been recognized in that Mahican shares innovations with Munsee and Unami, suggesting a subgroup containing Common Delaware and Mahican; this group has been referred to as Delawaran. Efforts to preserve and revive the Eastern Algonquian language and culture are being undertaken by a group called the Medicine Singers (aka 'Eastern Medicine Singers') in cooperation with
1593-539: The Delaware were Dutch explorers and traders, and loan words from Dutch are particularly common. Dutch is the primary source of loan words in Munsee and Unami. Because many of the early encounters between Delaware speakers and Dutch explorers and settlers occurred in Munsee territory, Dutch loanwords are particularly common in Munsee, although there are also a number in Unami as well. Many Delaware borrowings from Dutch are nouns that name items of material culture that were presumably salient or novel for Delaware speakers, as
1652-413: The Eastern Algonquian area makes interpretation of relations between the languages difficult. As well, diffusion means that some common features may have spread beyond their original starting point through contact, and as a result, a number of characteristics occur in a language assigned to a proposed subgroup, but the same feature is also found in other adjacent languages that are not analyzed as part of
1711-442: The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a genetic subgroup, and the individual Eastern Algonquian languages descend from PEA. By contrast, other Algonquian languages are hypothesized to descend directly from Proto-Algonquian, the ultimate common language ancestor of the Algonquian languages. In historical linguistics in general, the primary criterion for status as a genetic subgroup is that there are shared innovations assigned to
1770-444: The Eastern Algonquian status of the southern New England languages and Powhatan and Carolina Algonquian. Proulx has proposed that the similarities can be explained as the result of diffusion. Goddard has countered that the extent of the similarities would require extensive diffusion very early in the breakup of the Eastern Algonquian languages and that such a position would be difficult in principle to differentiate from analyzing PEA as
1829-733: The Grand River in Six Nations and to rapidly vanish in Munsee-Delaware Nation. Only in Moraviantown the Lenape language was used on a daily basis from a majority of the nation and help on the preservation of the language. Today Munsee survives only at Moraviantown, where there are two fluent first language speakers aged 77 and 90 as of 2018. There are no fluent speakers left in the Munsee-Delaware nation of
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1888-513: The Lenape people living in Canada; however, there are members that are working to revitalize the language within the community. From 2009 through at least 2014, a Lenape language class was taught at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania . The class focused on beginner phrases and grammar, but also included information about the history and culture of the Lenape people. Books used in
1947-700: The Maritimes of Canada to North Carolina . The available information about individual languages varies widely. Some are known only from one or two documents containing words and phrases collected by missionaries, explorers or settlers, and some documents contain fragmentary evidence about more than one language or dialect. Many of the Eastern Algonquian languages were greatly affected by colonization and dispossession. Miꞌkmaq and Malecite-Passamaquoddy have appreciable numbers of speakers, but Western Abenaki and Lenape (Delaware) are each reported to have fewer than 10 speakers after 2000. Eastern Algonquian constitutes
2006-628: The Moravian missionary David Zeisberger and published in a translation from German into English by Peter Stephen du Ponceau in 1827. Zeisberger does not even mention the "dialect" names when describing varying grammatical features, while the translator refers to them in two annotations. Despite their relative closeness the two are sufficiently distinguished by features of syntax, phonology, and vocabulary that speakers of both consider them not mutually intelligible so that, more recently, linguists have treated them as separate languages. Munsee Delaware
2065-890: The Munsee dialect. In Aboriginal teaching materials used by provincial governments this newest standard for Munsee is used in order to teach Muncy to children in the school system. Linguists have tended to use common phonetic transcription symbols of the type found in the International Phonetic Alphabet or similar Americanist symbols in order to represent sounds that are not consistently represented in conventional standard writing systems. Europeans writing down Delaware words and sentences have tended to use adaptations of European alphabets and associated conventions. The quality of such renditions have varied widely, as Europeans attempted to record sounds and sound combinations they were not familiar with. Practical orthographies for both Munsee and Unami have been created in
2124-612: The Northern Unami area being at Tohickon Creek on the west bank of the Delaware River and between Burlington and Trenton on the east bank. The poorly known Unalachtigo dialect is described as having been spoken in the area between Northern and Southern Unami, with only a small amount of evidence from one group. Southern Unami, to the south of the Northern Unami-Unalachtigo area, is reflected in
2183-530: The Unami Delaware spoken by Delawares in Oklahoma. Names for the speakers of Munsee and Unami are used in complex ways in both English and the Lenape language. The Unami dialect (called a language by non-native speaker students of Lenape) is sometimes called Delaware or Delaware proper, reflecting the original application of the term Delaware to Unami speakers. Both Munsee and Unami speakers use Delaware if enrolled and Lenape if not enrolled as
2242-543: The acute accent to indicate predictable main stress. As well, predictable voiceless or murmured /ă/ is indicated with the breve accent ⟨˘⟩ . Similarly, the breve accent is used to indicate an ultra-short [ə] that typically occurs before a single voiced consonant followed by a vowel. The practical system indicates vowel length by doubling the vowel letter, and maintains the linɡuistic system's practices for marking stress and voiceless/ultra-short vowels. The practical system uses orthographic ⟨sh⟩ for
2301-513: The border between Springfield Township and Mansfield Township . It is fed by Annaricken Brook, and then by Crafts Creek just at the U.S. Route 206 crossing. Assiscunk Branch and Barkers Brook enter between U.S. Route 206 and the New Jersey Turnpike crossing. The creek begins to widen on the outskirts of Burlington City, where it empties into the Delaware River. Wetlands along the creek are habitats for many species, among them
2360-574: The case of poorly attested languages, particularly in southern New England, conclusive classification of written records as representing separate languages or dialects may be ultimately impossible. The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology classifies the Eastern Algonquian languages within their Glottolog database as follows: The languages assigned to the Eastern Algonquian group are hypothesized to descend from an intermediate common ancestor proto-language , referred to as Proto-Eastern Algonquian (PEA). By virtue of their common ancestry,
2419-587: The class included Conversations in Lenape Language and Advanced Supplements (both written by De Paul). Munsee and Unami are linguistically very similar. They are both dialects of one language by Lenape speakers, and together are referred to as the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, as can be seen in the Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians , written by
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2478-445: The context of various language preservation and documentation projects. A recent bilingual dictionary of Munsee uses a practical orthography derived from a linguistic transcription system for Munsee. The same system is also used in a recent word book produced locally at Moraviantown. The online Unami Lenape Talking Dictionary uses a practical system distinct from that for Munsee. However, other practically oriented Unami materials use
2537-401: The creek is mostly agricultural, but there are areas of urban surfaces and forest as well. Assiscunk Creek is an impaired river but has improved greatly in recent years thanks to hard efforts to stop the pollution. 40°04′27″N 74°50′21″W / 40.07406°N 74.83903°W / 40.07406; -74.83903 This Burlington County, New Jersey state location article is
2596-553: The exception of /ə/ . In cells with two vowels, the first is long. Similarly, Unami vowels have also been analysed as organized into contrasting long-short pairs. One asymmetry is that high short /u/ is paired with long /o·/ , and the pairing of long and short /ə/ is noteworthy. In cells with two vowels, the first is long. Both Munsee and Unami have loan words from European languages, reflecting early patterns of contact between Delaware speakers and European traders and settlers. The first Europeans to have sustained contact with
2655-445: The gradual displacement of some of the Lenape people from their aboriginal homeland, in a series of population movements of genocidal intent involving forced relocation and consolidation of small local groups, extending over a period of more than two hundred years. This is also referred to as The Long Walk. It was due to the new United States breaking the first treaty it had ever signed. The currently used names were gradually applied to
2714-486: The languages of the Maritimes and New England are strongly differentiated from those farther south (Mahican, the Delaware languages, Nanticoke, Carolina Algonquian, and Powhatan). At the same time the Southern New England languages (discussed below) share significant similarities, indicating a closer degree of relationship between them. Micmac has innovated significantly relative to other Eastern Algonquian languages, particularly in terms of grammatical features, but it shares
2773-621: The larger groups resulting from the genocidal forced relocation policy of the United States. The ultimate result was the displacement of virtually all Lenape-speaking people from the region to present-day Oklahoma , Kansas , Wisconsin , Upstate New York , and Canada . Two distinct Unami-speaking groups emerged in Oklahoma in the late 19th century, the Registered (Cherokee) Delaware in Washington, Nowata, and Craig Counties, and
2832-535: The late 18th century, to Moraviantown , Munceytown , and Six Nations . Several different patterns of migration led to groups of Munsee speakers moving to Stockbridge in present-day Wisconsin , Cattaraugus in present-day New York state, and Kansas . In 1892 the Munsee-Delaware and Moraviantown children were sent to Mount Elgin Residential School where only English language was permitted to be spoken. The Lenape language began its disappearance along
2891-412: The names Delaware, Munsee, and Unami postdate the period of consolidation of these local groups. The earliest use of the term Munsee was recorded in 1727, and Unami in 1757. At the time of first contact of Europeans colonizers in the 17th century, the Lenape resided in relatively small communities consisting of a few hundred people. The intensity of contact with European settlers resulted in
2950-598: The northern border of the Western SNEA area and to the west of Massachusett, would appear to share features of the Western and Eastern subgroups. The closely related Lenape ( Delaware ) languages Munsee and Unami form a subgroup, with the two languages descending from an immediate ancestor called Common Delaware (CD). Goddard notes a small number of innovations in morphology and phonology that set Munsee and Unami off from their neighbours. As well, similarities between
3009-603: The people who are enrolled in the Delaware Tribe of Indians have developed a spelling system that is the most recent standard for writing in the Unami dialect. Out of respect to this intellectual property of The Delaware Tribe of Indians their standard for writing in the Unami dialect should be used. As well, the Muncy at the Six Nations Reserve in what is now called Canada have done the same standardization for
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#17327938470773068-411: The phonetic symbol /š/ , and ⟨ch⟩ for the phonetic symbol /č/ . Eastern Algonquian languages The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages . Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adjacent inland areas, from what are now
3127-543: The pronunciation of many Unami words relative to the corresponding Munsee words. This section focuses upon presenting general information about Munsee and Unami sounds and phonology, with detailed discussion reserved for entries for each language. Munsee and Unami have the same basic inventories of consonants, as in the following chart. In addition, Unami is analysed as having contrastive long voiceless stops: p· , t· , č· , k· ; and long voiceless fricatives: s· , š· , and x· . The raised dot /·/
3186-470: The proposed subgroup that cannot be assigned to the ultimate ancestor language. A complex series of phonological and morphological innovations define Eastern Algonquian as a subgroup. "There is less diversity, by any measure, among [Eastern Algonquian languages] as a group than among the Algonquian languages as a whole or among the non-Eastern languages." The validity of PEA as a genetic subgroup has been disputed by Pentland and Proulx. Pentland questions
3245-462: The subgroup in question. Appeal to both genetic subgroups and areal diffusion is required. Goddard notes: "Each Eastern Algonquian language shares features with each of its immediate neighbors, and the resulting continuum is of a sort that is likely to have resulted from the spread of linguistic innovations among forms of speech that were already partly differentiated but still similar enough to make partial bilingualism easy." Proceeding north to south,
3304-460: The term Christian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English. The equivalent Munsee term is ké·ntə̆we·s , meaning "one who prays, Moravian convert". Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delawares as Unami in English or /wə̆ná·mi·w/ in Munsee. The Oklahoma Delawares refer to themselves in English as Delaware and in Unami as /ləná·p·e/ . The name Lenape , which is sometimes used in English for both Delaware languages together,
3363-411: The two languages are analysed as having the same basic vowel system, consisting of four long vowels /i· o· e· a·/ , and two short vowels /ə a/ . This vowel system is equivalent to the vowel system reconstructed for Proto-Eastern-Algonquian. Alternative analyses reflect several differences between the two languages. In this analysis Munsee is analysed as having contrasting length in all positions, with
3422-588: The very small amount of material available precludes a more definitive conclusion. Costa outlines three sound changes that are innovations uniquely assignable to Proto-Eastern Algonquian, and hence constitute evidence for the subgrouping (the asterisk denotes a reconstructed sound in the proto-language: (a) palatalization of Proto-Eastern-Algonquian (PEA) *k; (b) merger of PEA consonant clusters *hr and *hx; (c) shift of word-final PEA *r to š , all of which occur in Massachusett phonology . As well, refining
3481-488: Was spoken in the central and lower Hudson River Valley , western Long Island , the upper Delaware River Valley , and the northern third of New Jersey in present-day North Jersey . While dialect variation in Munsee was likely there is no information about possible dialectal subgroupings. Unami Delaware was spoken in the area south of Munsee speakers in the Delaware River Valley and New Jersey, south of
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