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Wilmington, Delaware

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Unami ( Delaware : Wënami èlixsuwakàn ) is an Algonquian language initially spoken by the Lenape people in the late 17th century and the early 18th century, in the southern two-thirds of present-day New Jersey , southeastern Pennsylvania , and the northern two-thirds of Delaware . The Lenape later migrated, largely settling in Ontario, Canada and Oklahoma . Today, it is only spoken as a second language.

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107-653: Wilmington ( Lenape : Paxahakink / Pakehakink ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware . The city was built on the site of Fort Christina , the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek , near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River . It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of

214-643: A French Huguenot , emigrated to the United States. Knowledgeable in the manufacture of gunpowder , by 1802 DuPont had begun making the explosive in a mill on the Brandywine River north of Brandywine Village and just outside the town of Wilmington. The DuPont company became a major supplier to the U.S. military. Located on the banks of the Brandywine River , the village was eventually annexed by Wilmington city. The greatest growth in

321-450: A breve – /ĭ, ĕ, ŏ/ – are also strong vowels because they are treated morphophonemically as long vowels, even though they are pronounced as short. In a sequence of syllables containing a short vowel followed by a consonant (C) or consonant and /w/ (Cw), the odd-numbered vowels are weak, and the even numbered vowels are strong. Furthermore, some short vowels are strong even in a weakening environment; such exceptions are often marked with

428-540: A court of equity , is empowered to grant broad relief in the form of injunctions and restraining orders, which is of particular importance when shareholders seek to block or enjoin corporate actions such as mergers or acquisitions. The Court of Chancery, as a statewide court, may hear cases in any of the state's three counties. A dedicated-use Chancery courthouse was constructed in 2003 in Georgetown, Sussex County. It has hosted high-profile complex corporate trials such as

535-528: A grave accent . Additionally, some vowels which are unaffected by predicted vowel syncope are marked with an acute accent . There is a predictable tendency, additionally, to nasalize and lengthen a vowel before /ns/ and /nš/ , so that /lowé·nso/ ('his name is [such]') is realized closer to [luwé̹·su] from underlying /ələwe·nsəw/ . Syllable structure is diverse, permitting a certain amount of consonant clustering. The following consonant clusters can occur: Additionally, certain consonants may combine with

642-502: A 2020 core metropolitan statistical area population of 6,228,601, representing the seventh largest metropolitan region in the nation, and a combined statistical area population of 7.366 million. Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The modern city also encompasses other Swedish settlements, such as Timmerön / Timber Island (along Brandywine Creek ), Sidoland (South Wellington), Strandviken (along

749-510: A Swedish admiral from Finland. Blommaert assisted the fitting-out and appointed Peter Minuit (the former Governor of New Netherland ) to lead the expedition. The expedition sailed into Delaware Bay aboard the Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel ; territory that was claimed by the Dutch. They passed Cape May and Cape Henlopen in late March 1638 and anchored on March 29 at a rocky point on

856-736: A Swedish log blockhouse located on Society Hill in Philadelphia in 1669. It was later used as a church until about 1700, when Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church of Philadelphia was built on the site. The start of the Third Anglo-Dutch War resulted in the Dutch recapture of New Netherland in August 1673. They restored the status which predated the English capture, and codified it in the establishment of three counties: Hoarkill County , New Amstel County , and Upland County, which

963-618: A conservation district. The historic districts are the Baynard Boulevard, Kentmere Parkway, Rockford Park, Cool Spring/Tilton Park, the tri-part sections of the Eastside, St. Marys and Old Swedes Church , Quaker Hill , Delaware Avenue, Trinity Vicinity, and Upper/Lower Market Street. The conservation district is Forty Acres. Wilmington has recently overcome its safety woes and is "safer now than it's ever been" with crime at its lowest rate in recent history. Prior to 2018, Wilmington

1070-776: A member of the Königsmarck family, attempted to instigate a rebellion against the British to return New Sweden to Swedish rule. The rebellion, known as the Revolt of the Long Swede due to Jacobsson's height, failed. Jacobsson was sold into slavery in the Caribbean and the families that had supported him were fined for their participation in the revolt. New Sweden continued to exist unofficially, and some immigration and expansion continued. The first settlement at Wicaco began with

1177-469: A new governor was selected and arrived from Sweden two years later. The colony expanded along the river under the leadership of Johan Björnsson Printz , governor from 1643 to 1653. They established Fort Nya Elfsborg on the east bank of the Delaware near what is now Salem, New Jersey , and Fort Nya Gothenborg on Tinicum Island . Printz built his manor house, The Printzhof , at Fort Nya Gothenborg, and

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1284-750: A number of Dutch. New Sweden was conquered by the Dutch Republic in 1655 during the Second Northern War and incorporated into the Dutch colony of New Netherland . By the middle of the 17th century, Sweden had reached its greatest territorial extent and was one of the great powers of Europe; it was the stormaktstiden ("age of greatness" or "great power period"). Sweden then included Finland and Estonia , along with parts of modern Russia , Poland , Germany , Norway and Latvia under King Gustavus Adolphus and later Queen Christina . Other European nations were establishing colonies in

1391-529: A proprietary colony, separate from the projected colony of New York . The invasion began on August 29, 1664, with the capture of New Amsterdam and ended with the capture of Fort Casimir in October. This took place at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War . In 1669, New Sweden was under British rule, but most of the population was still Swedish. A man named Marcus Jacobsson, posing as

1498-599: A series of wars between the Dutch and English , the area stabilized under British rule, with strong influences from the Quaker communities under the auspices of Proprietor William Penn . A borough charter was granted in 1739 by King George II , which changed the name of the settlement from Willington, after Thomas Willing (the first developer of the land, who organized the area in a grid pattern similar to that of its northern neighbor Philadelphia), to Wilmington, presumably after

1605-563: Is Wilfredo Campos. In 2002, the Wilmington Police Department started a program known to some in the neighborhoods as jump-outs in which unmarked police vans would patrol crime-prone neighborhoods late at night, suddenly converge at street corners where people were loitering and detain them temporarily. Using loitering as probable cause, the police would then photograph, search, and fingerprint everyone present. Along with apprehending anyone with drugs or weapons, it

1712-424: Is as follows: *i· (from PEA merger of Proto-Algonquian (PA *i· and *i to PEA *i· ), *o· (from PEA merger of PA *o· and *o ), *e· (from Proto-Algonquian *e· ), and *a· (from Proto-Algonquian *a· ; the short vowels are *ə (from Proto-Algonquian *e ), and *a (from Proto-Algonquian *a ). This system was continued down to Common Delaware, but Munsee and Unami have innovated separately with respect to

1819-508: Is filled only for transitive verbs and help describe the relationship between the two participants by indicating which is the agent and which is the object . The direct and inverse theme signs indicate the direction of the verb along a spectrum what might be called distance. From least to most distant the participants are: (1) first or second; (2) indefinite (only as subject); (3) proximate third person; (4) obviative third person; (5) farther obviative third person; (6) inanimate (subject only). If

1926-419: Is found in three conjunct endings: /-ak/ , /-at/ , and /-an/ . In the last case, the accent shifts to the penultimate /-an/ only if it would otherwise fall on an antepenultimate short vowel, and if the consonant between them is voiced. Unami phonology is extremely complex, with various morphophonological rules, and a theoretical form usually undergoes a set of predictable phonological processes to produce

2033-592: Is led by Chief John Looney and maintains five engine companies, two ladder companies, a rescue squad company, and a marine company (fireboat) fire fighting fleet. Emergency medical services are provided through contract with the city's St. Francis Hospital, whose EMS division operates a minimum five BLS transport units at all times of the day. Advanced Life Support services in the City of Wilmington are provided by New Castle County's EMS Division with two city-based medic units. All Wilmington firefighters since 2002 are trained to

2140-575: Is located in Wilmington. The prison is often referred to as the "Gander Hill Prison" after the neighborhood it is located in. The prison opened in 1982. Many Wilmington City workers belong to one of several Locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. The city of Wilmington is made up of the following neighborhoods: The City of Wilmington designates nine areas as historic districts and one area as

2247-510: Is now Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Lenape sachem Mattahoon later claimed that the purchase only included as much land as was contained within an area marked by "six trees", and the rest of the land occupied by the Swedes was stolen. The Director of New Netherland, Willem Kieft , objected to the Swedish presence, but Minuit ignored him since he knew that the Dutch were militarily weak at

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2354-768: Is often used for these purposes, as other diacritics may be used above vowels (see below). In the following chart, the usual transcription used in the sources is given with the IPA in brackets. Unami vowels are presented as organized into contrasting long–short pairs. One asymmetry is that high short /u/ is paired with long /oː/ , and the pairing of long and short /ə/ is noteworthy. /ə/ and /o/ are not distinguishable before /w/ , /m/ , and /kw/ . Additionally, vowels are classified as strong and weak, which plays an important role in determining stress (see below). Long vowels and vowels before consonant clusters are automatically strong. Certain short vowels, which are differentiated with

2461-647: Is one of the few settlements in the area retaining a Swedish name, and Upland survives as Upland, Pennsylvania . Swedesford Road is still found in Chester and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania, although Swedesford has long since become Norristown . Swedeland, Pennsylvania , is part of Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County . The American Swedish Historical Museum in South Philadelphia houses many exhibits, documents, and artifacts from

2568-583: Is one of the least studied aspects of the Unami language; there is much more data on morphology, because of an especial focus on reconstructing Proto-Algonquian. Some examples of complex sentences in Unami include: New Sweden New Sweden ( Swedish : Nya Sverige ) was a colony of the Swedish Empire along the lower reaches of the Delaware River between 1638 and 1655 in present-day Delaware , Maryland , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania in

2675-488: Is one of the oldest surviving log houses in the United States. The settlers came from all over the Swedish realm. The percentage of Finns in New Sweden grew especially towards the end of the period of colonization. Finns composed 22 percent of the population during Swedish rule, and rose to about 50 percent after the colony came under Dutch rule. A contingent of 140 Finns arrived in 1664. The ship Mercurius sailed to

2782-492: Is retained even when the thematic element is dropped. The contrast between both categories is sharper in the Central Algonquian languages, whose theme sign has a more complex series of alternants. The second position consists of diminutives in 2 /-tī/ and pejoratives in 2 /-šī/ (in both of these, the /-ī/ is unstable.) An example of a diminutive is /pé·t·o/ ('the little one comes'), contrasted with

2889-455: Is treated as animate in the sentence šá·i a· ăsǝ́nak kǝnčí·mowak ('the stones would immediately cry out'). Unami is a highly agglutinative , polysynthetic language. Verbs in Unami are marked for person and number, and contain inflectional elements of order (independent, conjunct, and imperative), aspect, and the negative. A table of the personal pronouns is given below. The first person plural ("we") may be either inclusive (including

2996-478: The /o·/ would be phonetically shortened via rule U-4a. Examples include: /ntá·mwi/ ('I get up from lying') versus /á·mwi·(w)/ ('he gets up'). Two roots with initial /t/ extend the syllable with /-ən/ when adding prefixes; these roots are /tal-/ ('there') and /tax-/ ('so many'), e.g. náni nt ən tala·wsí·ne·n ('that is where we live [our lives]') from the animate intransitive stem /tala·wəsi·/ . Prefixes are mutually exclusive and are selected based on

3103-463: The 2020 United States census , there were 70,898 people, 31,754 households, and 13,572 families residing in the city. As of the census of 2010, there were 70,851 people, 28,615 households, and 15,398 families residing in the city. The population density was 6,497.6 inhabitants per square mile (2,508.7/km). There were 32,820 housing units at an average density of 3,009.9 per square mile (1,162.1/km) and with an occupancy rate of 87.2%. The racial makeup of

3210-537: The Delaware River near Simonds Garden) and Översidolandet (along the Christina River , near Woodcrest and Ashley Heights). The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape (or Delaware Indian) band led by Sachem (Chief) Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna ("People Like Me River", present Delaware River ) in 1609. The area was called "Maax-waas Unk" or "Bear Place" after

3317-638: The Disney shareholder litigation . Because Delaware is the official state of incorporation for so many American companies, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, located in Wilmington, is one of the busiest of the 94 federal bankruptcy courts located around the United States. Delaware has among the strictest rules in the U.S. regarding out-of-state legal practice, allowing no reciprocity to lawyers who passed

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3424-512: The New World and building successful trading empires at this time. The Swedes sought to expand their influence by creating their own tobacco plantation and fur-trading colony to circumvent French, English and Dutch merchants. The Swedish South Company (also known as the Company of New-Sweden) was founded in 1626 with a mandate to establish colonies between Florida and Newfoundland for

3531-709: The United States . Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great power , New Sweden formed part of the Swedish efforts to colonize the Americas . Settlements were established on both sides of the Delaware River. Fort Christina , located in what is now Wilmington, Delaware , was the first settlement, named after Christina, Queen of Sweden . The settlers were Swedes , Finns , and

3638-413: The 1950s, more people began living in the suburbs of North Wilmington and commuting into the city to work. This was made possible by extensive upgrades to area roads and highways and through the construction of Interstate 95 , which cut through several of Wilmington's neighborhoods and accelerated the city's population decline. Urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s cleared entire blocks of housing in

3745-630: The British Prime Minister Spencer Compton , Earl of Wilmington , who took his title from Wilmington, East Sussex , in southern England. Although during the American Revolutionary War only one small battle was fought in Delaware, British troops occupied Wilmington shortly after the nearby Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The British remained in the town until they vacated Philadelphia in 1778. In 1800, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont ,

3852-796: The Center City and East Side areas. The Wilmington riot of 1968 , a few days after the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. , became national news. On April 9, Governor Charles L. Terry, Jr. deployed the National Guard and the Delaware State Police to the city at the request of Mayor John Babiarz. Babiarz asked Terry to withdraw the National Guard the following week, but the governor kept them in

3959-746: The Christina River, the Coastal Plain land is flat, low-lying, and in places marshy. The Delaware River here is an estuary at sea level (with twice-daily high and low tides), providing sea-level access for ocean-going ships. On the western side of Market Street, the Piedmont topography is rocky and hilly, rising to a point that marks the watershed between the Brandywine River and the Christina River. This watershed line runs along Delaware Avenue westward from 10th Street and Market Street. These contrasting topography and soil conditions affected

4066-542: The City Council President. The Council President is elected by the entire city. The Mayor of Wilmington is also elected by the entire city. The current mayor of Wilmington is Mike Purzycki (D). The current city council members are listed in the table below. The Delaware Department of Correction Howard R. Young Correctional Institution , renamed from Multi-Purpose Criminal Justice Facility in 2004 and housing both pretrial and posttrial male prisoners,

4173-562: The Delaware headquarters of: Wilmington Trust (now a branch of M&T Bank , after Wilmington Trust merged with M&T in 2011), PNC Bank , Wells Fargo , JPMorgan Chase , HSBC , Citizens Bank , Wilmington Savings Fund Society , and Artisans' Bank), and legal services. A General Motors plant was closed in 2009. Wilmington is home to one Fortune 500 company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company . Science and Technology are also thriving as companies such as Incyte , Chemours , Corteva , Solenis and ZipCode call Wilmington home. In addition,

4280-436: The Dutch plundered houses and killed livestock in the vicinity of the fort. New Sweden was formally incorporated into New Netherland although the Swedish and Finnish settlers were allowed local autonomy. They retained their own militia, religion, court, and lands. This lasted until the English conquest of New Netherland, launched on June 24, 1664. The Duke of York sold New Jersey to John Berkeley and George Carteret to become

4387-549: The Dutch post Fort Casimir , located at the site of the present town of New Castle , which was built by the Dutch in 1651. Rising governed New Sweden until the autumn of 1655, when a Dutch fleet under the command of Peter Stuyvesant subjugated the Swedish forts and established the authority of the Colony of New Netherland throughout the area formerly controlled by the Swedes. This marked the end of Swedish rule in North America. Beginning in 1664, British colonization began; after

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4494-452: The EMT-B level and serve as first responders for life-threatening emergencies. Much of Wilmington's economy is based on its status as the most populous and readily accessible city in Delaware, a state that made itself attractive to corporations with business-friendly financial laws and a longstanding reputation for a fair and effective judicial system. Contributing to the economic health of

4601-884: The Maax-waas Hanna (Bear River) that flowed by (present Christina River ). It was called the Bear River because it flowed west to the "Bear People", who are now known as the People of Conestoga or the Susquehannocks . The Dutch heard and spelled the river and the place as Minguannan . When settlers and traders from the Swedish South Company under Peter Minuit arrived in March 1638 on the Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel , they purchased Maax-waas Unk from Chief Mattahorn and built Fort Christina at

4708-491: The Minquas Kill that is known today as Swedes' Landing . They built a fort at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek which they named Fort Christina after their Queen. In the following years, the area was settled by roughly 600 Swedes and Finns , a number of Dutchmen, a few Germans, a Dane, and at least one Estonian . Minuit served as the first governor of the colony of New Sweden. He had been

4815-577: The New Sweden colony. Perhaps the greatest contribution of New Sweden to the development of the New World is the log house building technique. The colonists of New Sweden brought with them the log cabin , which became such an icon of the American frontier that it is commonly thought of as an American structure. The C. A. Nothnagle Log House on Swedesboro-Paulsboro Road in Gibbstown, New Jersey ,

4922-714: The Swedish colony prospered for a time. New Sweden established a strong trading relationship with the Susquehannock and supported them in their war against Maryland colonists. In 1651, the Dutch West India Company abandoned Fort Nassau and established Fort Casimir on the west side of the Delaware River a few miles south of Fort Christina. In May 1654, soldiers from New Sweden led by Governor Johan Risingh captured Fort Casimir and renamed it Fort Trinity ( Trefaldigheten in Swedish). In November 1654,

5029-472: The addressee) or exclusive. Following are tables exemplifying verbal paradigms in Unami in the independent order, indicative mood and present tense. The TI themes have the same inflection as AI stems for all conjuncts. (Indefinite subject forms of consonant-final themes are not attested, but the vowel-final themes follow the AI pattern.) Three forms are illustrated from each type. Verbal prefixes are used only in

5136-411: The age of 18 living with them, 23.5% were married couples living together, 24.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 46.2% were non-families. 38.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 3.18. In

5243-619: The areas they inhabited were Scheyichbi (i.e. New Jersey), which means 'water's edge', and Lenapehoking , meaning 'in the land of the Delaware Indians'. It describes the ancient homeland of all Delaware Indians, both Unami and Munsee. The English named the river running through much of the traditional range of the Lenape after the first governor of the Jamestown Colony , Lord De La Warr , and consequently referred to

5350-567: The assimilation of New Sweden into New York was the extension of the Duke's laws into the region on September 22, 1676. This was followed by the partition of some Upland Counties to conform to the borders of Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of the Delaware portion going to New Castle County on November 12, 1678. The remainder of Upland continued in place under the same name. On June 21, 1680, New Castle and Hoarkill Counties were partitioned to produce St. Jones County. On March 4, 1681, what had been

5457-485: The average number of shooting incidents from 2003 through 2017, which is 108, the 72 shooting incidents in 2018 represent a 33% decrease over the 15-year period average. The Wilmington Police Department (WPD), is authorized to deploy up to 289 officers in motor vehicles, on foot, and on bicycle. Its operations are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. As of 2023, its chief of police

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5564-408: The average seasonal total is 20.2 inches (51 cm). Extremes in temperature have ranged from −15 °F (−26 °C) on February 9, 1934, up to 107 °F (42 °C) on August 7, 1918, though both 100 °F (38 °C)+ and 0 °F (−18 °C) readings are uncommon; the last occurrence of each was July 18, 2012 and February 5, 1996, respectively. See or edit raw graph data . As of

5671-424: The bar in other states. According to Wilmington's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: In terms of growth, as of 2018 the city was seeing nearly $ 450M worth of private investments, multi-million dollars of city infrastructure improvements, and significant improvements to their transportation infrastructure. Unami language Unami is one of two Delaware languages ;

5778-471: The cap on interest rates that banks may legally charge customers. Major credit card issuers such as Barclays Bank of Delaware (formerly Juniper Bank ), are headquartered in Wilmington. The Dutch banking giant ING Groep N.V. headquartered its U.S. internet banking unit, ING Direct (now Capital One 360), in Wilmington. Wilmington Trust is headquartered in Wilmington at Rodney Square . Barclays and Capital One 360 have very large and prominent locations along

5885-686: The characteristics of a satellite city to Philadelphia, but Wilmington's long history as Delaware's principal city, its urban core, and its independent value as a business destination makes it more properly considered a small but independent city in the Philadelphia metropolitan area . Wilmington lies along the Fall Line geological transition from the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont Plateau to the Atlantic Coastal Plain . East of Market Street, and along both sides of

5992-478: The city is the corporate domicile of more than 50% of the publicly traded companies in the United States, and over 60% of the Fortune 500. Delaware chartered corporations rely on the state's Court of Chancery to decide legal disputes, which places legal decisions with a judge instead of a jury. The Court of Chancery, known both nationally and internationally for its speed, competence, and knowledgeable judiciary as

6099-632: The city occurred during the Civil War . Delaware, though officially remaining a member of the Union , was a border state and divided in its support of both the Confederate and the Union causes. The war created enormous demand for goods and materials supplied by Wilmington including ships, railroad cars, gunpowder, shoes, and other war-related goods. By 1868, Wilmington was producing more iron ships than

6206-617: The city until his term ended in January 1969. This is reportedly the longest occupation of an American city by state forces in the nation's history. In the 1980s, job growth and office construction were spurred by the arrival of national banks and financial institutions in the wake of the 1981 Financial Center Development Act, which liberalized the laws governing banks operating within the state, and similar laws in 1986. Today, many national and international banks, including Bank of America , Capital One , Chase , and Barclays , have operations in

6313-563: The city was $ 32,884, and the median income for a family was $ 37,352. Males working full-time had a median income of $ 41,878 versus $ 36,587 for females working full-time. The per capita income for the city was $ 24,861. 27.6% of the population and 24.9% of families were below the poverty line. 45.7% of those under the age of 18 and 16.5% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. The Wilmington City Council consists of thirteen members. The council consists of eight members who are elected from geographic districts, four elected at-large and

6420-550: The city was 58.0% African American , 32.6% White , 0.4% Native American , 1.0% Asian , <0.1% Pacific Islander , 5.4% from other races , and 2.6% from two or more races. 12.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Non-Hispanic Whites were 27.9% of the population in 2010, compared to 40.5% in 1990. As of the census of 2000, the largest ethnicities included: Irish (8.7%), Italian (5.7%), German (5.2%), English (4.4%), and Polish (3.6%). There were 28,615 households, out of which 25.0% had children under

6527-413: The city, the age distribution of the population shows 24.4% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.4 males. According to ACS one-year estimates for 2010, the median income for a household in

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6634-646: The city, typically credit card operations. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 17.0 square miles (44 km), of which 10.9 square miles (28 km) is land and 6.2 square miles (16 km) is water. The total area is 36.25% water. The city sits at the confluence of the Christina and Delaware rivers , approximately 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Philadelphia . Wilmington Train Station , one of

6741-458: The clock. Other industries produced such goods as automobiles, leather products, and clothing. In desperate need of workers more and more minorities moved to the north and settled in places like Wilmington. This led to tensions that occasionally boiled over like the Wilmington, Delaware race riot of 1919 . The post-war prosperity again pushed residential development further out of the city. In

6848-528: The colony in 1665, and 92 of the 106 passengers were listed as Finns. Memory of the early Finnish settlement lived on in place names near the Delaware River such as Finland (Marcus Hook), Torne, Lapland, Finns Point , Mullica Hill, and Mullica River. A portion of these Finns were known as Forest Finns , people of Finnish descent who had been living in the forest areas of Central Sweden. The Forest Finns had moved from Savonia in Eastern Finland to Dalarna , Bergslagen and other provinces in central Sweden during

6955-399: The colony of New Sweden was formally partitioned into the colonies of Delaware and Pennsylvania. The border was established 12 miles north of New Castle, and the northern limit of Pennsylvania was set at 42 degrees north latitude. The eastern limit was the border with New Jersey at the Delaware River, while the western limit was undefined. In June 1681, Upland ceased to exist as the result of

7062-459: The descendants of the early Swedish immigrants to New Sweden in the mid-18th century and documented their experiences with the Native American Indians who resided in those parts, in a book entitled Travels into North America . Historian H. Arnold Barton has suggested that the greatest significance of New Sweden was the strong and lasting interest in America that the colony generated in Sweden, although major Swedish immigration did not occur until

7169-479: The development of the city's first comprehensive park system. William Poole Bancroft , a successful Wilmington businessman influenced by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted , led the effort to establish open parkland in Wilmington. Rockford Park and Brandywine Park were created due to Bancroft's efforts. Both World Wars stimulated the city's industries. Industries vital to the war effort – shipyards, steel foundries, machinery, and chemical producers – operated around

7276-400: The directors of the Dutch West India Company ordered the Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant , to "drive" the Swedes from the river. In the summer of 1655, Stuyvesant sailed to Delaware Bay with 7 ships and 317 soldiers and quickly retook Fort Casimir (Fort Trinity). Stuyvesant then proceeded to besiege Fort Christina which surrendered on September 15, 1655. During the siege,

7383-443: The downtown and Wilmington Riverfront regions has been the presence of Wilmington Station , through which 665,000 people passed in 2009. Wilmington has become a national financial center for the credit card industry, largely due to regulations enacted by former Governor Pierre S. du Pont IV in 1981. The Financial Center Development Act of 1981, among other things, eliminated the usury laws enacted by most states, thereby removing

7490-443: The following rule: if one of the participants is second person, the second person prefix is used; if not, if one of the participants is the first person, then the first person prefix is used; if none of these applies, other forms, if they take a prefix, take the third person prefix. This is the well-known Algonquian 2-1-3 precedence rule. Suffixes are grouped into eight positional classes. These are: The first position (theme signs)

7597-420: The high degree of similarity between Mahican and the two Delaware languages, but relatively little detailed argumentation in support of Delawarean has been adduced. Compared to Munsee, Unami has undergone extensive phonological innovation, coupled with morphological regularization . The PEA vowel system consisted of four long vowels *i·, *o·, *e·, *a·, and two short vowels *a and ə. The vowel history

7704-519: The homicide total of 2016 despite only being 2/3 through the year. In 2014, Wilmington recorded 28 homicides, making for a rate of 39.5 per 100,000 residents, which is ten times the national average. Wilmington frequently appears on NeighborhoodScout's "Top 100 Most Dangerous Cities in the United States" list. In 2017, Wilmington was ranked as the 5th most dangerous city in the US. Nearby cities such as Camden, New Jersey, and Chester, Pennsylvania, also ranked in

7811-467: The inanimate, obviative, and absentative categories are more marked than their opposites (i.e. animate, proximate, and nonabsentative), but it is not clear whether animacy or inanimacy is the more marked of the opposition. The first and second persons are not marked for presence or obviation and are always animate. The first mentioned and/or primary animate third person is proximate; all other third persons are obviative , unless they act in conjunction with

7918-414: The independent order, although some forms of the independent order lack a prefix. There are three of them: /n-/ (first person), /k-/ (second person), and /w-/ (third person). If a stem has an underlying initial vowel, a /t/ is inserted after the prefix, and before this and other stem-initial consonants a /ə/ is inserted. Sometimes, this /ə/ contracts with a stem-initial /wə/ to /o·/ except when

8025-416: The industrial and residential development patterns within the city. The hilly west side was more attractive for the original residential areas, offering springs and sites for mills , better air quality , and fewer mosquitoes . Wilmington has a warm temperate climate or humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa ), with hot and humid summers, cool to cold winters, and precipitation evenly spread throughout

8132-822: The language. Some descriptions of the Northern Unami dialect as spoken during the 18th century are given by Moravian missionary John Heckewelder . Unami has been analyzed as having contrastive geminate and non-geminate obstruent consonants, although this contrast is relatively weak. A full analysis of the status of the geminates, also known as long consonants, is not available, and more than one analysis of Delaware consonants has been proposed. The long consonants are described as having low functional yield, and they differentiate relatively few pairs of words but occur in contrasting environments. Some examples of contrastive geminate pairs include: ná k·ə́nt ka·n 'then you (sg.) danced' versus ná kə́nt ka·n 'then there

8239-845: The late 19th century. From 1870 to 1910, more than one million Swedes arrived in America, settling particularly in Minnesota and other states of the Upper Midwest . Traces of New Sweden persist in the lower Delaware valley, including Holy Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware , Gloria Dei Church and St. James Kingsessing Church in Philadelphia, Trinity Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, New Jersey , and Christ Church in Swedesburg, Pennsylvania . All of those churches are commonly known as "Old Swedes' Church". Christiana, Delaware ,

8346-652: The major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area (synonymous with the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton , Earl of Wilmington , who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain . As of the 2020 census , the city's population was 70,898. Wilmington is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area (which also includes Philadelphia , Reading , Camden , and other urban areas), which had

8453-551: The moment. Minuit completed Fort Christina, then sailed for Stockholm to bring a second group of settlers. He made a detour to the Caribbean to pick up a shipment of tobacco to sell in Europe in order to make the voyage profitable; however, he died on this voyage during a hurricane at St. Christopher in the Caribbean. The official duties of the governor of New Sweden were carried out by Captain Måns Nilsson Kling , until

8560-520: The mouth of the Maax-waas Hanna (which the Swedes renamed the Christina River after Queen Christina of Sweden ). The area was also known as "The Rocks", and is located near the foot of present-day Seventh Street. Fort Christina served as the headquarters for the colony of New Sweden which consisted of, for the most part, the lower Delaware River region (parts of present-day Delaware , Pennsylvania , and New Jersey ), but few colonists settled there. Dr. Timothy Stidham (Swedish: Timen Lulofsson Stiddem )

8667-475: The negative affix 4 /-(ō)w(ī)/ and prohibitive imperative and future imperative forms, which have complex series of alternants. Position five contains the central endings which index the central participant of each form, except those using TA theme signs 1 /-i·/ and 1 /-əl/ ; Position six contains the affix endings: /-pan/ marks the preterite, and /sa/ ~ /shan/ mark the present. Position seven contains peripheral endings, which are used to mark

8774-461: The nominal category of some 3rd person participants in forms in the independent and conjunct (but not imperative) orders. Position eight reflects the subjunctive, prohibitive, and future modes. Unami is, like many Algonquian languages , polysynthetic and highly agglutinative. This means that most of the information is encoded in the verb (sometimes with whole words being incorporated into the stem), making word order more fluid than in English. Syntax

8881-418: The other is Munsee . The last fluent Unami speaker in the United States, Edward Thompson, of the federally recognized Delaware Tribe of Indians , died on August 31, 2002. His sister Nora Thompson Dean (1907–1984) provided valuable information about the language to linguists and other scholars. Lenni-Lenape literally means 'Men of Men', but is translated to mean 'Original People'. The Lenape names for

8988-404: The pejorative /pé·šo/ ('the undesirable one came'). The use of /t/ in the formation of diminutives seems to be an innovation of Unami, as many other Algonquian languages use */s/ or */ʃ/ (in fact, the diminutive of Munsee is /-šī/ ). In position three are the affixes 3 /-lī/ , which marks the obviative third person, and 3 /-h(ə)tī/ , which marks the plural. Position four contains

9095-586: The people who lived around the river as "Delaware Indians". Unami is an Eastern Algonquian language . The hypothetical common ancestor language from which the Eastern Algonquian languages descend is Proto-Eastern Algonquian (PEA). An intermediate group, Delawarean , that is a descendant of Proto-Eastern Algonquian consists of Mahican and Common Delaware, the latter being a further subgroup comprising Munsee Delaware and Unami Delaware. The justification for Delawarean as an intermediate subgroup rests upon

9202-404: The proximate participant. Verbs are also inflected to indicate whether the verbal action is proximate on obviate or obviate on proximate. Third-person participants can be marked by a special set of endings indicating their absence from the general area of the focus of discourse. For example, absentative endings are used when speaking of the deceased (even if the corpse is physically present), as in

9309-462: The purposes of trade, particularly along the Delaware River. Its charter included Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders. The directors of the company included Flemish/Dutch merchant Samuel Blommaert . The company sponsored 11 expeditions in 14 separate voyages to Delaware between 1638 and 1655; two were lost. The first Swedish expedition to America sailed from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637, organized and overseen by Clas Larsson Fleming ,

9416-568: The reorganization of the Colony of Pennsylvania, with the Upland government becoming the government of Chester County, Pennsylvania. On August 24, 1682, the Duke of York transferred the western Delaware River region to William Penn, including Delaware, thus transferring Deale County and St. Jones County from New York to Delaware. St. Jones County was renamed Kent County , Deale County was renamed Sussex County , and New Castle County retained its name. Swedish explorer and botanist Pehr Kalm visited

9523-449: The rest of the country combined and it rated first in the production of gunpowder and second in carriages and leather. Due to the prosperity Wilmington enjoyed during the war, city merchants and manufacturers expanded Wilmington's residential boundaries westward in the form of large homes along tree-lined streets. This movement was spurred by the first horsecar line, which was initiated in 1864 along Delaware Avenue. The late 19th century saw

9630-410: The semivowel /w/ . Some underlying forms may also contain /sw/ and /šw/ , but these are always removed by morphophonemic processes. Stress is generally predictable in Unami. The rightmost nonfinal strong vowel is stressed, or a strong vowel in final position if it is the only one in the word. Often when stress would be expected to fall on the antepenult it is shifted to the penult . This change

9737-984: The sentence no·lăčahko·ná·na nkahe·səná·na ('our (excl.) mother (abv.) treated us well'), in which both verb and noun are marked with the absentative /-a/ ending. Nouns in Unami are classified as animate or inanimate, which is reflected in verbal conjugation. Animate nouns denote human beings, animals, spirits, trees, and certain fruits, tubers, root vegetables, and other unpredictable exceptions like ko·n ('snow') and nhíkaš ('my fingernail'). (However, berries, nuts, and vegetables growing above ground are generally inanimate.) Thus, té·hi·m ('strawberry'), xáskwi·m ('corn'), ke·skúnthak ('pumpkin'), mpi ('water'), and nhíka·t ('my leg') are inanimate, while lə́nu ('man'), xho·k ('snake'), mahtán'tu ('Devil') and hɔ́pəni·s ('potato') are animate. However, traditionally inanimate nouns which are directly addressed or personified are treated as animate. Thus, traditionally inanimate ăsǝ́n ('stone')

9844-748: The sounds /ə/ and /a/ become null (disappear) in the context of when they are weak and appear before either /h/ or /x/ and another vowel. The slash means 'in the context of', and the underscore _ indicates where the /ə/ or /a/ must occur. In some notations the pound symbol (#) appears, indicating word boundaries (either the beginning or end). Regular parenthesis indicate optional conditions when framing phonemes or additional information about phonemes: "C=stop". The capital letters C, V, and N mean 'consonant', 'vowel', and 'nasal' respectively. Third person participants are marked for gender (animate versus inanimate), obviation ( proximate versus obviative ), and presence (nonabsentative versus absentative). Generally,

9951-639: The southernmost stops on Philadelphia's SEPTA rail transportation system, is also served by Northeast Corridor Amtrak passenger trains. Wilmington is served by I-95 and I-495 within city limits. In addition, the twin-span Delaware Memorial Bridge , a few miles south of the city, provides direct highway access between Delaware and New Jersey, carrying the I-295 eastern bypass route around Wilmington and Philadelphia, as well as US 40 , which continues eastward to Atlantic City, New Jersey . These transportation links and geographic proximity give Wilmington some of

10058-406: The subject is less distant than the object, the direct theme is used; if the subject is more distant, the inverse signs are used. After transitive animate (TA) verb stems appear one of the four following theme signs: For transitive inanimate (TI) verbs, there appears the theme sign pertaining to the appropriate TI class: For Class 2 TI theme signs, in certain derivational categories, the theme sign

10165-402: The third Director of New Netherland, and he knew that the Dutch claimed the area surrounding the Delaware River and its bay. The Dutch West India Company , however, had withdrawn its settlers from the area in order to concentrate on the settlement on Manhattan Island , leaving Fort Nassau on the east side of the Delaware River as the only Dutch outpost on the Delaware River. Minuit landed on

10272-459: The three counties which they created. After taking stock, the English declared on November 11 that settlements on the west side of the Delaware River and Delaware Bay were to be dependent on the Province of New York , including the three Counties. This declaration was followed by a declaration that renamed New Amstel as New Castle. The other counties retained their Dutch names. The next step in

10379-487: The top 15. In early 2017, the mayor's office as well as many public advocates called for comprehensive action to reduce astronomical crime rates in Wilmington, as the city saw a shooting almost every other day throughout the spring, and by May, the city had already seen 15 homicides. According to the WPD's 2018 Compstat report, shooting incidents have decreased to a level not seen in Wilmington in more than 15 years. When compared to

10486-520: The true form found in speech. There are about 17 such rules common to both Munsee and Unami, and another 28 unique to Unami, though this analysis ignores predictable exceptions, such as the class of static words which may skip many of these rules. These rules govern things such as consonant lengthening/shortening, vowel syncopation, metathesis, vowel coloring, etc. A list of processes unique to Unami follow. These are written in linguistic notation. Thus, {ə,a} → ∅ / _{h, x}V when {ə,a} are weak means that

10593-1093: The vowel systems. The dominant modern version of the Southern Unami dialect called Lenape is taught by the Delaware Tribe of Indians , headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma , which manages the Lenape Language Preservation Project. The same dialect was spoken by the Delaware Nation in Anadarko in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Both Oklahoma and Delaware tribes have recorded native speakers and produced written lessons for instruction, which are available for sale from Various Indian Peoples Publishing Company, located in Texas . These efforts, in conjunction with other community efforts comprise an attempt to preserve

10700-571: The waterfront of the Christina River . In 1988, the Delaware legislature enacted a law which required a would-be acquirer to capture 85 percent of a Delaware chartered corporation's stock in a single transaction or wait three years before proceeding. This law strengthened Delaware's position as a safe haven for corporate charters during an especially turbulent time filled with hostile takeovers. Wilmington's other notable industries include insurance (American Life Insurance Company [ALICO], Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Delaware), retail banking (including

10807-639: The west bank of the river and met with the sachems of the Lenape and Susquehannock . They held a conclave in Minuit's cabin on the Kalmar Nyckel , and he persuaded the Lenape to sign deeds which he had prepared to resolve any issue with the Dutch. The Swedes claimed that the purchase included land on both sides of the South (Delaware) River from the Schuylkill River down to Delaware Bay in what

10914-525: The year. In July, the daily average is 76.8 °F (24.9 °C), with an average 21 days of 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs annually. Summer thunderstorms are common in the hottest months. The January daily average is 32.4 °F (0.2 °C), although temperatures may occasionally reach 10 °F (−12 °C) or 55 °F (13 °C) as fronts move toward and past the area. Snowfall is light to moderate, and variable, with some winters bringing very little of it and others witnessing several major snowstorms;

11021-588: Was a prominent citizen and doctor in Wilmington. He was born in 1610, probably in Hammel, Denmark, and raised in Gothenburg , Sweden. He arrived in New Sweden in 1654 and is recorded as the first physician in Delaware. The most important Swedish governor was Colonel Johan Printz , who ruled the colony under Swedish law from 1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by Johan Rising , who upon his arrival in 1654, seized

11128-585: Was consistently ranked among the most dangerous cities in the United States, along with several other cities in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area , such as Camden , Trenton , and Atlantic City , New Jersey, and Chester, Pennsylvania . In the 2000s, while most cities had seen a decrease in crime and murder, Wilmington had broken its record for homicides in a single year multiple times. In 2017, Wilmington saw an even steeper increase in crime. By August 2017, Wilmington had already eclipsed

11235-415: Was dancing'; ní p·ɔ́·m 'his thigh' versus ní pɔ́·m 'the ham'; and nsa· s·a ·k·ənə́mən 'I stuck it out repeatedly' versus nsa· sa ·k·ənə́mən 'I stuck it out slowly'. There are also rules that lengthen consonants in certain environments. The length mark (ː) is used to indicate gemination of a preceding consonant or vowel length , although in the literature on Unami the raised dot (·)

11342-409: Was later partitioned between New Castle County, Delaware, and the Colony of Pennsylvania. The three counties were created on September 12, 1673, the first two on the west shore of the Delaware River and the third on both sides of the river. The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 ended the second period of Dutch control and required them to return all of New Netherland to the English on June 29, including

11449-522: Was thought that this program would improve the police's database of fingerprints and eye-witnesses for use in future crime investigations. Some citizens protested that such a practice was a violation of civil rights . Also in 2002, the entire downtown business district was placed under video monitoring. Wilmington was the first city in the United States to monitor the entire business district using video monitoring. The city claims this has helped prevent and reduce crime. The Wilmington Fire Department (WFD)

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