Munsee

Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, Delaware: Huluníixsuwaakan, Monsii èlixsuwakàn) 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 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. As of 2022, only one elderly native speaker remained. When the number of speakers was somewhat larger, the language was reported to differ between individual speakers, each having a personal dialect. There has been interest in learning the language by younger individuals. Some researchers and universities have partnered with indigenous communities in an effort to revitalize the language, notably Montclair State University and the University of Toronto.

From Wikipedia · Munsee language · CC BY-SA 4.0