The Lenape Talking Dictionary

Project History: In January, 2002, the Lenape Language Preservation Project received a three-year grant to 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, and it will eventually be available in that format. The Internet is available to so many people now and it is basically free, so we decided that more people would benefit by making this available on the Internet. Please visit the tribal website located at www.delawaretribeofindians.nsn.us and look for the link to the Dictionary. This is a work-in-progress so check back often as more words and sound files will be added.

How to Use the Lenape Talking Dictionary

This is the opening page of the dictionary. Just type in the English word you wish to look up:

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 space 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."

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 12,000, 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 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 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 - 1993

Nora 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

Another elder who has contributed to this dictionary is Edward Leonard Thompson, the brother of Nora Thompson Dean.

Edward Leonard Thompson
1904 - 2002

Edward Leonard Thompson taught some language classes in 1985. He has also worked with a number of people on the language.

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.

                                           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.

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, is a Ph.D. candidate at 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.

John Daniels, JR. is the all lower-case playwright of Austin, Texas. He is an actor, writer, director, designer, and teacher with 24 produced plays. Presently, he co-stars on tour in his own romantic comedy, Making Love in Public. In 2001 john played Major Ridge in the new Trail of Tears drama in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He is married to the lovely April who got him involved in the Lenape language project.

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.