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60-677: Proto-Algic had four basic vowels, which could be either long or short: Proto-Algic had the following consonants: It is unknown if *č /tʃ/ was an independent phoneme or only an allophone of *c and/or *t in Proto-Algic (as in Proto-Algonquian). In 1992, Paul Proulx theorized that Proto-Algic also possessed a phoneme *gʷ , which became *w in Proto-Algonquian and g in Wiyot and Yurok. All stops and affricates in

120-519: A lateral fricative . One piece of evidence for the interdental fricative is that this is the reflex it has in Arapaho. However, other researchers have argued for its reconstruction as a lateral fricative, */ɬ/ , in part because of the aforementioned merger in most languages with the phoneme traditionally reconstructed as *l . As with *i and *o , it is unclear whether *č was an independent phoneme in Proto-Algonquian. Almost all instances where *č

180-497: A consonant, for example *ki·šekat- "be day" + *-ki = *ki·šekaxki "when it is day." Note that Bloomfield here actually reconstructed this word as *ki·šekaθki , but evidence from other Algonquian languages has shown that the cluster should be reconstructed as *xk . When two vowels became contiguous, if one was a long vowel and one was short, the short vowel dropped: *naka·- "stop" + *-en "by hand" = *naka·ne·wa "s/he stops him/her by hand." If both were long, an epenthetic *y

240-726: A disyllable with a weak penultimate syllable, the final syllable is strong, and receives primary stress. (a) ăsə́n 'stone' (disyllabic Weak-Strong) The grammar of Munsee is characterized by complex inflectional and derivational morphology . Inflection in Munsee is realized through the use of prefixes and suffixes added to word stems to indicate grammatical information, including number (singular or plural), gender , person , possession , negation , obviation , and others. Nouns use combinations of person prefixes and suffixes to indicate possession and suffixes to indicate gender, number, diminutive , absentive , and obviation. Verbs use

300-417: A few idiosyncratic cases, however, this rule did not operate, and instead the consonants were changed in various ways. For instance, the combination θ+p produced when the root *eθ- "thither, thus" was added to the final *-pahto· "run" simplified to *xp : *expahta·wa "s/he runs thither." One regular exception to the "connective i" rule was when the conjunct suffix *-ki was added to a verb stem ending in

360-493: A handful of irregular exceptions to this pattern, however. For example, the prefixes lost their vowels before several kinship terms, as in *ne- + *-o·hkomehsa = *no·hkomehsa "my grandmother." Several rules for internal sandhi in morpheme combinations can be reconstructed. The most basic was the insertion of a "connective i" between two consonants. For example, *po·n- "cease" + *-m "act by speech on an animate object" = *po·n i me·wa "s/he stops talking to him/her." In

420-410: 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 the acute accent to indicate predictable main stress. In addition predictable voiceless or murmured /ă/ is indicated with the breve accent (˘). Similarly, the breve accent

480-440: A plural suffix *-ari . Another important distinction involved the contrast between nouns marked as proximate and those marked as obviative . Proximate nouns were those deemed most central or important to the discourse, while obviative nouns were those less important to the discourse. When two third person participants appeared in a sentence, one was marked as proximate and the other as obviative, in order to distinguish which one

540-604: A self-designation in English. The term Delaware was originally applied by British colonists to Unami speakers living along the Delaware River , which is named after Lord De La Warr , the first governor of Virginia. The term was gradually extended to refer to all Delaware groups. The Munsee in Ontario are sometimes referred to as "Ontario Delaware" or "Canadian Delaware". Munsee-speaking residents of Moraviantown use

600-469: A single consonant (other than *h ) or vowel, or with a consonant plus *w or *y ; there were no sequences of consecutive vowels; and the word always ended in a short vowel. The vowels *i and *o never occurred in initial syllables. A sequence of consonant+semivowel could not be followed by *o or *o· . There was also a restriction which prevented two-syllable nouns from ending in a sequence of short vowel + consonant + short vowel. In most cases, when

660-529: A single language.) Aboriginally, and for a period subsequent to the arrival of Europeans, Munsee was spoken within a series of small and largely autonomous local bands, located primarily within the drainage of the Hudson and upper Delaware rivers, the major river systems of the area. The general pattern, found throughout the Eastern Algonquian area, was one in which indigenous groups resided along

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720-929: A single set of person prefixes and a series of suffixes in position classes after the verb stem to indicate combinations of person, number, negation, obviation, and others. There is no standard writing system for Munsee. 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 transliterated renditions has varied widely, as Europeans attempted to record sounds and sound combinations they were not familiar with. A practical orthography for Munsee has been created in

780-442: A total of eight vowels. The same inventory of eight vowels was found in Proto-Algic, but Proto-Algonquian did not inherit its inventory directly from Proto-Algic. Rather, several sound changes left pre-Proto-Algonquian without short * i and * o . It is not clear that they had redeveloped by the time of Proto-Algonquian. All instances in which Bloomfield reconstructed *o can now be reconstructed as *we based on evidence from some of

840-481: A valid separate cluster in PA (Munsee wìilùshtíikan , Blackfoot moʼtokááni , "head, hair"). Finally, all consonants and consonant clusters could be followed by *w or *y (although the sequences *čw and *hy did not occur; and *t and *θ were regularly replaced before *y , for which see below). Several allophonic processes, morphophonemic processes, and phonological constraints can be reconstructed. Among

900-544: Is a fair going on'; ntáyrəm 'my tire.' Different analyses of the Munsee vowel system have been proposed. Goddard (1979) presents an analysis in which Munsee and Unami have the same vowel system, unchanged from the Proto-Eastern-Algonquian vowel system (discussed in the History section below). In this analysis, there are four long vowels /i·, o·, e·, a·/ and two short vowels /a, ə/ . Vowel length

960-675: Is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of two Delaware languages (also known as Lenape languages , after the tribe's autonym). It is very closely related to the Unami Delaware, but the two are sufficiently different that they are considered separate languages. Munsee was spoken aboriginally by Lenape in

1020-462: Is descended from Proto-Algic . Most Algonquian languages are similar enough that their relatedness has been recognized for centuries and was commented on by the early English and French colonists and explorers. For example, in 1787 (over a decade before Sir William Jones' famous speech on Indo-European), the theologian and linguist Jonathan Edwards Jr. deduced that the Algonquian languages of

1080-418: Is indicated with a raised dot (·). However, in modern Munsee there are several sources of new short /i, o, e/ that arise from such sources as reduplication, loan words, and other various phonological changes, and that cannot be derived from other underlying vowels. Hence an analysis in which there are four positions that have contrastive vowel length as well as /ə/ , is appropriate. The short vowel /i/ has

1140-447: Is less agreement on where it was spoken. The Algonquian family, which is a branch of the larger Algic language family , is usually divided into three subgroups: Eastern Algonquian , which is a genetic subgroup, and Central Algonquian and Plains Algonquian , both of which are areal groupings. In the historical linguistics of North America, Proto-Algonquian is one of the best studied, most thoroughly reconstructed proto-languages. It

1200-643: Is little information on dialect variation within the Munsee-speaking area. The primary known named Munsee groups, from north to south on the west side of the Hudson River, were the The Wappinger were to the east of the upper Hudson; below them going north to south on the east bank of the Hudson were the The disruptions resulting from the entry of European settlers, fur traders, and explorers led to

1260-455: Is not an indigenous term, and that it results from a "corruption" of English use of Minisink is incorrect. The term follows a regular pattern of Munsee word formation. Names for the speakers of Munsee are used in complex ways in both English and in Munsee. The Unami language is sometimes treated as "Delaware" or "Delaware proper", reflecting the original application of the term Delaware to Unami speakers, but Munsee speakers use Delaware as

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1320-493: Is of Unami origin, and is used in English as a self-designation by speakers of Unami; Exceptionally among scholars, Kraft uses Lenape as an English-language cover term to refer to all Delaware-speaking groups, while noting that this usage is "not entirely appropriate". Munsee speakers refer to their language as /hə̀lə̆ni·xsəwá·kan/ , literally 'speaking the Delaware language'. Speakers of Munsee originally resided in

1380-555: Is probably also of recent origin", derived from earlier (pre-Proto-Algonquian) *ye sequences and morphophonological shortening. Proto-Algonquian had a smaller number of consonants than Proto-Algic. The reconstructed consonants are as follows (given in the Americanist phonetic notation common in the literature): The phoneme given in the table as ⟨r⟩ was reconstructed by Bloomfield as *l , but Goddard has more recently argued that it should be reconstructed as *r , largely because

1440-431: Is reconstructed are before *i , *i· , or *y , where it does not contrast with *t (see below), or are cases of diminutive consonant symbolism. However, Goddard recommends continuing to write it in reconstructions, since it seems to have been present in the clusters *čp and *čk ; since it can be reconstructed before *a in the term *čapo·nk- "splash"; and since *t does appear before *i· in some reconstructions of

1500-413: 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 the phonetic symbol /š/ , and ⟨ch⟩ for

1560-477: The -w . This drop also carried over into "careful speech". 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. Words that end with the negative suffix /-wi/ or the subjunctive suffix /-e/ had variants with final /-ɘ/ . Another large class of particles and pre-words are found in older sources ending in /-Í·wi/ , e.g. Some words have variation between underlying |

1620-731: The Raritan River to the Atlantic Ocean. To the south of the Munsee were the Unami Delaware. To the north were the Algonquian Mahican , and to the east were the Eastern Long Island peoples, who also spoke Algonquian languages, such as Unquachog (also spelled Unkechaug ) and southern New England languages, such as Quiripi . (Quiripi and Unquachog are likely members of a dialect continuum of

1680-524: The Delaware languages, comprising a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. Taken together with Mahican , the Delaware languages constitute Delawaran, a subgroup within Eastern Algonquian. The term Munsee developed as an English name for the aggregated group that formed along the upper Delaware River north of the Delaware Water Gap . Other Munsee dialect speakers joined the Minisink group;

1740-539: The Eastern languages (for example, Bloomfield's *nekotwi "one" is now reconstructed as *nekwetwi based on forms like Munsee nkwúti ). There are still a handful of instances where *o can be reconstructed, usually as the result of a morphophonological process of vowel shortening. Goddard concludes that "an independent phoneme *o is of no great antiquity in Proto-Algonquian", but recommends continuing to use it in reconstructions. Likewise, Berman states that "PA *i

1800-554: The English term Munsee to refer to residents of Munceytown, approximately 50 km (31 mi) to the east. In English, Moraviantown residents call themselves Delaware , and in Munsee /lənáːpeːw/ 'Delaware person, Indian'. Some Delaware at Moraviantown also use the term Christian Indian as a preferred self-designation in English. The equivalent Munsee term is ké·ntə̆we·s ('one who prays, Moravian convert'). Munsee speakers refer to Oklahoma Delaware as Unami in English or /wə̆ná·mi·w/ in Munsee. The English term Lenape

1860-465: The above chart have aspirated counterparts, and all consonants, except fricatives, have glottalized ones. Proto-Algonquian significantly reduced this system by eliminating all glottalized and aspirated phonemes. Proto-Algonquian Proto-Algonquian (commonly abbreviated PA ) is the proto-language from which the various Algonquian languages are descended. It is generally estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but there

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1920-415: The basis of only a single correspondence set ( *št in *weštikwa·ni , "his/her head"; and *hr in *re·hre·wa , "s/he breathes") and may not have been part of Proto-Algonquian. David Pentland, for example, argued that Ojibwe oshtigwaan , claimed as the only form requiring the reconstruction of *št , is a borrowing from Cree. However, evidence from Munsee and Blackfoot seem to also point toward *št as

1980-438: 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 related Unami language is written using a distinct practical orthography . The table below presents a sample of Munsee words, written first in

2040-399: The daughter languages have innovated a great deal. PA had four classes of verbs: transitive verbs with an animate object (abbreviated TA), transitive verbs with an inanimate object (TI), intransitive verbs with an animate subject (AI), and intransitive verbs with an inanimate subject (II). Transitive verbs had two paradigms, termed objective and absolute . Objective verbs were used when

2100-525: The deletion of certain short vowels. All syllables containing long vowels are strong. Any short vowel in a closed syllable (i.e. (C)VC) is strong. Counting left to right, in a sequence of two or more open syllables containing short vowels, the odd-numbered syllable is weak and the even-numbered syllable is strong. As well, certain syllables containing short vowels (frequently such syllables occur in reduplicated syllables and loan words) must exceptionally be marked as strong. In words longer than two syllables,

2160-453: The displacement of these local groups. They gradually consolidated into larger groups that brought together speakers from the different groups within the Munsee-speaking area. Munsee phonology is complex but regular in many regards. Metrical rules of syllable weight assignment play a key role in the assignment of word-level stress , and also determine the form of rules of vowel syncope that produce complex but mostly regular alternations in

2220-436: The drainages of major river systems, with divisions between upriver and downriver groupings. Named groups were found on the major tributaries; they developed larger sites on the main streams and smaller camps at the headwaters and on feeder streams. Estimates vary, but these local groups may have had a population of up to two hundred people each. These groups spoke localized varieties of the language now called Munsee, but there

2280-524: The earliest attestations of the majority of languages show some sort of rhotic as its reflex, which in many languages subsequently changed to a lateral within the historical period. The precise pronunciation of the phoneme written ⟨θ⟩ is unknown. It has merged with the reflex of *r in all Algonquian languages except for Cree and the Arapahoan languages . Leonard Bloomfield originally suggested that it could have been either an interdental fricative or

2340-480: The earliest recorded mention of Munsee dates from 1725. Minisink is a Munsee term meaning 'at the island', and is to be transcribed mə̆nə́sənk . It is the locative form of a now disused word /mənə́s/ 'island' (no source given, not a form given in records and not a normal Munsee noun ending; viz. manan , manhan ; form suggests 'small island'); cognates in other Algonquian languages are e.g. Ojibwe minis , 'island'. Orthographic ⟨ink⟩ in

2400-451: The eastern and central United States were "radically the same" ('radically' meaning having a common 'root', since radix is Latin for 'root'), and contrasted them with the neighboring Iroquoian languages . The earliest work on reconstructing the Algonquian proto-language was undertaken by the linguists Truman Michelson and Leonard Bloomfield . In 1925 Bloomfield reconstructed what he called "Primitive Central Algonquian", using what were at

2460-526: The final syllable is excluded from consideration of stress placement, i.e. is extrametrical , and the last strong syllable preceding the final syllable in the word receives the main stress. (a) payaxkhı́·kan 'rifle' (strong penultimate, receives primary stress) (b) né·wake 'if I see him' (weak penultimate, preceding syllable receives primary stress) In disyllabic words a strong penultimate syllable receives primary stress. (a) á·mwi·w 's/he gets up from lying down' (disyllabic Strong-Strong) In

Proto-Algic language - Misplaced Pages Continue

2520-480: The first member of the clusters was unknown, and Bloomfield's choice of symbols to represent them was purely arbitrary. Thus, ⟨x⟩ does not represent *[x], ⟨ç⟩ does not represent *[ç], and ⟨ʔ⟩ does not necessarily represent *[ ʔ ]. Goddard argues that Bloomfield's arbitrary symbol ⟨x⟩ be reconstructed as *s , and Bloomfield's ⟨ç⟩ be reconstructed as *r . While a glottal stop phoneme is not otherwise reconstructed, given that Bloomfield's ⟨ʔ⟩ in clusters seems to represent

2580-625: The first two locations, the language is used only by a few elders at Moraviantown, Ontario. Since the early 21st century, the language has been taught to tribal members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Native Americans, and the Delaware Nation , Moraviantown Reserve. The southern boundary of Munsee territory was the area north of the Delaware Water Gap, following the river system southeast along

2640-562: The form Minisink is the modern Munsee locative suffix /-ənk/ (discussed below in the Grammar section). The term Munsee is the English adaptation of a regularly formed word, mə́n'si·w ('person from Minisink'). Over time the British extended the term Munsee to any speaker of the Munsee language. Attempts to derive Munsee from a word meaning 'stone' or 'mountain,' as proposed by Brinton , are incorrect. Kraft 's claim that Munsee

2700-432: The forms of words. Word-level stress is largely predictable, with exceptions occurring primarily in loan words, reduplicated forms, and in words where historical change has made historically transparent alternations more opaque. Munsee has the following inventory of consonants; International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values are given in brackets. Some loan words from English contain /f/ and /r/ : fé·li·n 'there

2760-734: The greater Manhattan area, the drainage of the Lower Hudson River valley , and the upper Delaware River. The arrival of European explorers, traders and settlers resulted in the progressive displacement of Munsee people over a period of several centuries. Munsee groups affected by this process ultimately moved away from their homeland to communities in both the United States and Canada. In the 20th century, surviving Munsee speakers in Canada lived at Six Nations , Ontario; Munceytown , Ontario; and Moraviantown Reserve. Now extinct in

2820-425: The individuals speak differs between speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals. Munsee is an Eastern Algonquian language, which is the sole recognized genetic subgroup descending from Proto-Algonquian , the common ancestor language of the Algonquian language family. Munsee is very closely related to Unami Delaware. Munsee and Unami constitute

2880-449: The most significant of these processes was that *t and *θ became *č and *š respectively before *i , *i· , and *y . For example, the initial *went- "from there" (as in *wentenamwa "s/he takes it from there") is realized as *wenč- in the word *wenči·wa "s/he comes from there", since it precedes *i· . There were several restrictions on phonotactics and the shape of the PA word that can be reconstructed. All words began with

2940-596: The neutralization of *p and *k and its realization in Menominee and Cheyenne is a glottal stop, it probably was indeed phonetically [ʔ] . The cluster written ⟨Hm⟩ shows up as p or m in most of the daughter languages, but as hm in Munsee (for example, PA *wi·kiwa·Hmi "house" becomes Ojibwe wiigiwaam , Fox wîkiyâpi , and Munsee wíikwahm ). The first member of the cluster may have been either *h or *ʔ . The clusters *št and *hr are each reconstructed on

3000-495: The object of the verb was not present as an overt noun elsewhere in the sentence, while absolute verbs were used when the object of the verb was marked with an overt noun in the sentence. Objective verbs could also be used when an object was present, and in such cases indicated that the object was definite , as opposed to indefinite. Munsee language Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, Delaware : Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn )

3060-429: The onomatopoeic noun ti·nti·wa "blue jay" (however, see Wiktionary for more). Reconstruction of the consonant clusters has been relatively difficult, and the paths the clusters take in their evolutions to the daughter languages have been complex. The current view is that the permissible consonant clusters were (first member on the left, second member across the top): In several cases the actual phonetic identity of

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3120-542: The phonetic symbol /č/ . Currently, the Munsee language has eight native speakers whose personal dialects vary from each other. Extensive details about how the language differs between all eight 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. Nouns and verbs that end in -i·w , -e·w and -a·w ; some speakers often dropped

3180-459: The phonetic value [ɪ] . Short /a/ has values centring on [ʌ] , with [a] occurring before [hC] (where 'C' represents any stop or the lateral consonant). Short /o/ has values centring on [ʊ] . The long vowels /iː, eː, aː, oː/ have the primary values [iː] , [ɛː] , [aː] , and [oː] , with /a/ varying to [ɑ] , and [ɒ] after labial consonants. Syllable weight plays a significant role in Munsee phonology, determining stress placement and

3240-440: The pronominal prefixes *ne- (first person), *ke- (second person), and *we- (third person) were added to a vowel-initial stem, an epenthetic *-t- was inserted between the prefix and the stem. Thus, the prefixes became *net- , *ket- , and *wet- respectively. For example, *ne- + *-ehkwa- = *netehkwa- "my louse". This feature goes back to Proto-Algic (compare Wiyot du- + híkw = dutíkw "my louse"). There were

3300-457: The time the four best-attested Algonquian languages: Fox , Ojibwe , Menominee , and Plains Cree . Following his initial reconstructions, investigations of other languages revealed that his "Primitive Central Algonquian" was essentially equivalent to Proto-Algonquian. Bloomfield wrote a refinement and expansion of his reconstruction in 1946, and his two papers remain the starting point for all research and reconstructions of Proto-Algonquian. In

3360-663: 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 , the northern third of New Jersey , and northeastern Pennsylvania . As of 2018, Munsee was spoken only on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario , Canada , by two elderly individuals, aged 77 and 90, making it critically endangered. The language that

3420-502: The years since there has been an enormous amount of comparative work undertaken on the Algonquian family. There remains some disagreement over the Algonquian Urheimat (homeland of the protolanguage). The initial theory, first put forth by Frank T. Siebert, Jr. in 1967 based on examining of the ranges of numerous species of plants and animals for which reliable Algonquian cognates existed, holds that Proto-Algonquian

3480-418: Was inserted between the two. Proto-Algonquian nouns had an animate/inanimate contrast: nouns representing animate beings (and some traditional items viewed as having spiritual powers) were classed as animate , while all other nouns were inanimate . The plural marker differed in form depending on whether the noun was animate or inanimate: animate nouns took a plural suffix *-aki , while inanimate nouns took

3540-532: Was spoken between Lake Huron's Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario , in Ontario , Canada, and at least as far south as Niagara Falls . Research a generation later suggests that in fact it was spoken farther west than this, perhaps "somewhere immediately west of Lake Superior " or on the Columbia Plateau . Proto-Algonquian had four basic vowels, *i , *e , *a , *o , each of which had a long counterpart (commonly written *i· , *e· , *a· , *o· ), for

3600-519: Was the subject and which was the object (since verbs inflected for whether they had a proximate or obviative subject and a proximate or obviative object). In a given stretch of discourse, there will not be two proximate or two obviative participants. There were personal pronouns which distinguished three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), inclusive and exclusive first person plural , and proximate and obviative third persons. Demonstrative pronouns have been more difficult to reconstruct, as many of

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