The Lenape Talking Dictionary
Project History: In January, 2002, the Lenape Language Preservation Project received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to produce a resource dictionary database of Lenape. We then had a database built to create a Lenape Talking Dictionary. Much of the funding has gone to digitizing and preserving our existing audiotapes which were made with native speakers of Lenape.
We had originally planned to make the Talking Dictionary available on a CD, but the Internet is available to so many people and is basically free, so we decided that more people would benefit by making this available on the Internet. The Culture section of the Delaware tribal website is located at http://culture.delawaretribe.org/home.htm and it also has a link to this Dictionary. This is a work-in-progress so come back often as more words and sound files are being added. The main website of the Delaware Tribe of Indians is found at: http://www.delawaretribe.org/tribalsite/.
Dialects of Lenape
The language used in the Lenape Talking Dictionary is what linguists call the "Southern Unami Dialect." See the map below which will show where this particular dialect was once spoken in the Lenape homeland. This is the dialect that was later used by both groups of Lenape (Delawares) in Oklahoma.
How to Use the Lenape Talking Dictionary
This is the opening page of the dictionary. Just type in the English or Lenape word you wish to look up. You can even do a search by typing in just a part of the word. It is not necessary to used accented letters in Lenape to do the search.
This is the Results page. In this case the word searched for was "bird" Notice the little speaker icon to the left of the Lenape entry. By clicking twice on that you can hear the word spoken by a native speaker.
This is the bottom half of the Results page. Note that some words do not have the speaker icon which means we have not yet added a sound file. Note also at the bottom of the page it reads More Results, and you click there to read more. You can also search for another word by typing in the English or Lenape spaces at the bottom of the page.
On the Results Pages if you click on any of the words which have been displayed in red letters and it will take you to another page with Detailed Information about that word. Below is a sample of that page, and here the word entered was "cat"
Once again here you can click the speaker icon to hear the Lenape word. Also, following the word there is an abbreviation within [ ] to tell the part of speech of the word. When possible the word will have a sample sentence which you can also hear. Many of the words will have an Analysis which will give information about how the word is constructed.
Some entries will also have a photograph of the item named, especially of traditional cultural items and things that are not commonly seen. You can click on the photo to enlarge it. Click on the photo a second time and it is small again. This page may also have a Comments box. This will be used to explain how some words are used differently than in English, or the traditional belief or use that goes with the word as was taught by our elders.
It will help you find things more quickly if you recall that Lenape often combines what would be two or three words in English into one Lenape word. If you want to look up the word "dress" you will find that there are at least three long pages of entries, but if you have a specific color dress you want to find, such as "blue dress" just type in the words blue and dress. In the same way if you want to look for the Lenape words for "I hear" typing in both words (without the quotation marks) will display fewer entries than typing in just the word "hear."
New Features
In April of 2011 we received a DEL (Documenting Endangered Languages) grant through National Science Foundation to make improvements to the Lenape Talking Dictionary. One of the first things we did was to hire some programmers to make the improvements we envisioned. They are as follows:
SEARCH- You are now able to search for words by entering the Lenape word, or part of the word. It is not necessary to used accented letters to do the search. An example of how to use the Search would be if you notice that a certain tree name ends with -mènshi you can check to see if that ending is used with other tree names by searching for menshi. You will find a number of tree names with that ending.
Another feature to limit your search is the Spacebar on your computer. If you search for the word EAT you will find a number of words containing that sequence of letters such as MEAT, FEATHER, etc. By clicking the spacebar once and then entering EAT it will greatly reduce the number of results and most will be forms of the verb, Eat.
WILD CARDS - Another new feature in the Search is the ability to use wild cards. If you are unsure of a certain letter in a word just use the question mark ? in its place. If you are unsure of a sequence of letters in a word you can use * to do the search. This wildcard search also works for looking up words from English. For example, using g??se will bring up Goose, Geese, Gooseberry, etc. Using g*se will bring up not only Goose, but also Grease, Glasses, etc.
STORIES- On the top line click on the word Stories and you will be taken to a list of them. You can click on the red speaker icons next to hear the titles of the stories. To hear the entire story click on the word View next to the name of the story. You will see the story written in short phrases or sentences in Lenape with a free English translation under it. There are a series of red speaker icons and by clicking each one you will hear the Lenape for that line. If you click the next icon as the previous line finishes you can hear the story as spoken in entirety.
Newest Feature
In December 2011 we obtained permission from the Delaware Nation (formerly The Delawares of Western Oklahoma) located at Anadarko, Oklahoma, to use their tapes to create sound files for the Lenape Talking Dictionary. Although the two Delaware groups in Oklahoma have been separated for over two hundred years they use the same Lenape dialect. Sound files made from their tapes are marked with a {DN} following the Lenape word.
Additional Information:
Additional Information: As stated, this is a work in progress. At the time of writing this the total number of Lenape words in the Dictionary that will be on the Internet is about 15,000, and we have many more to add. We are also continuing to have our audiotapes of Lenape speakers converted to digital format, which then need to be edited to extract the Lenape words. Usually the first step is to create a sound file with the Lenape word and its translation, and next is a sound file with just the Lenape word. This is then entered into the Dictionary database and becomes immediately available on the Internet.
We should mention that the sound files are not all of studio quality. Most were recorded whenever and wherever possible – sitting in someone’s living room, on their porch, in a classroom, etc. - so you may hear a dog barking in the background, or a baby crying, or people talking. We will do our best to eliminate unnecessary noises and clear the sound as much as possible, but not to the point of distorting a person’s voice.
We should also mention that there were some temporary difficulties if you were using an iPad or some other mobile device to access the Taking Dictionary as the speaker icons which play the sound files were not being displayed. We think our programmers have found a solution to this problem, but if you do not see the small red speakers icons to the left of many of the words please let us know by using the Contact Us form. Note that there are still a number of words for which we do not yet have sound files available so there are words which do not have the speaker icon displayed.
We hope you will find this useful as a learning tool. We have added Grammar and Lessons sections as well so you can start learning how to construct sentences in Lenape. We will continuing adding to these in the future. It is now up to you, the Lenape people who want to learn the language of your ancestors, to make good use of this material the Lenape elders have left for your benefit.
The Lenape Speakers in This Talking Dictionary
Around the year 1600 the Lenape language was spoken by thousands of people. Now, the remaining speakers who grew up with Lenape as their first language have all left this life. We can be grateful that some of our elders took the time to try to preserve the Lenape language for us. They did this by teaching classes, making recordings, working with younger tribal members and with linguists.
Below are photographs of two of the main speakers whose voices you will hear in the Lenape Talking Dictionary. The photo shows two of them visiting while at a Stomp Dance.
Lucy Parks Blalock
1906 - 2000 |
Nora Thompson Dean
1907 - 1984 |
Lucy began to teach Lenape classes at the Tribal headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1992 under the auspices of the Delaware Tribal Culture Preservation Committee. These continued until May of 1994 when she was no longer able to teach, but the language work continued with some language committee members going to Lucy's home at Quapaw, Oklahoma. We would also like to express our thanks to Dr. David Oestreicher for sharing the recordings of the Lenape language he made with Nora and Lucy.
 Lucy Blalock With Part of Her Language Class - 1993Nora taught Lenape language classes at Nowata, Oklahoma, in the years 1979-80. Mrs. Dean also developed several cassette learning tapes and booklets called the Lenape Language Lessons in 1980. Over the years she also worked extensively with a number of linguists and anthropologists to try to preserve the Lenape language and culture. We would like to acknowledge Carrie Briggs, a student in Bruce Pearson's linguistics course, for sharing recordings she made with Nora.
 Nora Dean Gives a Lecture on Lenape Folklore at Bryn Mawr College – 1973 Other Speakers of the Delaware Tribe
James H. Thompson
1867-1964
One elder who contributed to this dictionary is James H. Thompson, the father of Nora Thompson Dean and Leonard Thompson. James was born in Kansas near Kansas City, and as a baby moved with his family when the Delawares were forced to move to Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). He worked with several scholars such as Willard Rhodes and W. W Newcomb, Jr., to preserve some knowledge of his people's songs and customs. He worked with Jim Rementer on the language in the early 1960's.
Edward Leonard Thompson
1904 - 2002
Another elder who has contributed to this dictionary is Edward Leonard Thompson, the brother of Nora Thompson Dean. Leonard taught some language classes in 1985. He has also worked with a number of people on the language.
Willie Longbone
1867 - 1946
Willie worked with linguist Carl Voegelin in 1939 at the University of Michigan.
James C. Webber
1877 - 1950
James, more commonly known as Charlie, worked with anthropologist Frank Speck at the University of Pennsylvania in 1928.
Fred Fall-Leaf
1900 - 1971
Fred Fall-Leaf promoted efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to have events for the people who spoke the Lenape language to get together and have a chance to keep in practice with the language. Fred also worked with several linguists over the years. His father John Fall-Leaf also promoted the traditional ways by holding Stomp Dances.
Ollie Beaver Anderson
1890-1981
Ollie Beaver Anderson was a fluent speaker of Lenape, and was married to another Delaware named George ‘Tom’ Anderson. Ollie worked on the language during the 1960s mainly with linguist Ives Goddard, then a graduate sudent at Harvard. We would like to express our thanks to Dr. Goddard for sharing these recordings of the vocabulary work he made with Ollie.
Reuben Wilson
1899 - 1970
Reuben worked with anthropologist Frank Speck, and with linguist Bruce Pearson and also Jim Rementer in his efforts to preserve information about traditional Lenape language, songs and dances, as well as handmade items. As far as we know Reuben was the only Lenape to have been on a radio show singing Lenape songs, although at the time he was extremely hard-of-hearing due to an auto accident. Reuben was also the last living Lenape to have sung his vision song in the traditional Big House Church.
Freddie Washington
1905 - 1976
Over the years Freddie worked with a number of linguists and anthropologists, including Frank Speck, in attempts to preserve the Lenape language and culture. Freddie worked on the language during the 1960s with linguists Ives Goddard and Bruce Pearson, then graduate students working on their dissertations.
Annie Brown Parks
1891 - 1980
Annie worked on the language during the 1960s with linguists Ives Goddard and Bruce Pearson, then graduate students working on their dissertations.
Speakers of the Delaware Nation
Martha Ellis
1900 - 1978
Martha worked on the language during the 1960s with linguist Ives Goddard, then a graduate student working on his dissertation. She later worked with linguist Ralph Cooley of the University of Oklahoma.
Bessie Snake
1896 - 1999
Bessie is shown here being interviewed by Ray Elkhair, Jr. in 1985. Bessie worked on language preservation during the 1960s with linguist Ives Goddard. She later worked with linguist Ralph Cooley of the University of Oklahoma. Also with linguist Bruce Pearson, and several other scholars on various topics.
Willie Snake
1900 - 1989
Willie worked on language preservation with linguist Ralph Cooley of the University of Oklahoma. Also with linguist Bruce Pearson, and Duane Hale to help preserve the Lenape language.
Willard Thomas
1905 - 1988
Willard worked on language preservation with linguist Ralph Cooley of the University of Oklahoma. He also worked with Duane Hale to help preserve the Lenape language. In 1963 Willard represented his Delaware group as an invited guest to Sweden along with Jasper Hill and Cephas Snake of Moraviantown, Ontario.
Lillie Hoag Whitehorn
1902 - 1994
Lillie worked on language preservation with linguist Bruce Pearson, and also with Jim Rementer to help preserve the Lenape language and music. Lillie was half Caddo and was also fluent in the Caddo language.
Additional Language Project Personnel
Lenape Language Committee: Members of the Committee: Mike Pace, Jim Rementer, Mary Louise Watters, and Janifer Brown present a Lenape Language CD to former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating.
Project Personnel: The people working on the project are Jim Rementer, Dr. Bruce Pearson, Nicky Kay Michael, April and John Daniels (April is the tribal member who takes care of our tribal website), and Jan Brown.
 Jim Rementer, project director, began his study of the Lenape or Delaware language in the summer of 1961. He returned the following summer and resumed his study with James H. Thompson, one of the oldest tribal members. After Mr. Thompson’s death in 1964, Jim continued his study primarily with Nora Thompson Dean, daughter of James Thompson. Jim continued his studies with other speakers, and in 1997 the Delaware Tribe appointed him director of the Lenape Language Project.
 Bruce L. Pearson, project co-director, began his work on Delaware with Nora Thompson Dean in 1968 while a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley. He taught linguistics and phonetics at the University of South Carolina from 1972 through 2003 while continuing to work with Mrs. Dean and others in the last generation of native Delaware speakers. Now professor emeritus, he lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and is continuing to analyze language materials for this and related projects.
 Nicky Kay Michael, a Delaware Tribal member, has her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Nicky edits the CDs for content, removal of extraneous noise, and removing unnecessary conversation. Nicky was able to use the Lenape language for her foreign language requirement when she was working on her Master’s Degree. When not working on the language project she trains for and has been in several triathlons. She also enjoys powwows and stomp dances.
 April R. (Vinyard) Daniels, a Delaware Tribal member, uses her services and expertise to keep the tribal website up to date. April's great-great grandmother enrolled her family in the early 1900's. Her family, who live and work primarily in Vinita, have maintained close ties with their Delaware heritage, including maintaining their original land allotments in the Vinita area. April lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and son, but even though they are so far away from Bartlesville, April wants to maintain connection with her tribe.
 Janifer Brown, a Delaware Tribal member, shown here with Lucy Blalock, has been working on timing and listing content of the audiotapes, and editing the CDs for content. Jan prepared herself for this specialized work by taking a special workshop in linguistics conducted by Dr. Akira Yamamoto of the University of Kansas. Jan is also a member of the Lenape Language Committee and the Culture Preservation Committee, an an active participant in the tribal stomp dances.
|
