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Map showing the Lenapehoking region. The Raritan River in central New Jersey is the traditional boundary between Munsee and Unami-speaking peoples.

Lenape (also called Delaware) is a language in the Algonquian language family spoken by the Lenape people. It had two main dialects, Munsee and Unami. Munsee and Unami are not mutually intelligible and in fact have many differences, so linguists generally treat them as two closely related but separate languages, for example in the Ethnologue.

Munsee, or Minnisink, was spoken in the upper Delaware River valley (including northern New Jersey), New York, and Long Island Sound area. Munsee is now spoken in parts of Canada, on and near the reservations to which Munsee were removed. There is currently only one fluent native speaker remaining, at the reserve at Moraviantown, Ontario. Until the mid-20th century, there were also speakers at the nearby Munceytown and Six Nations reserves. In the early 20th century, there was also a small speaker community at the Cattaraugus Seneca reservation in upstate New York.

Unami was spoken in the lower Delaware River valley (including central and southern New Jersey) and was most recently spoken in parts of Oklahoma, where Unami-speakers were removed. It is now extinct, though language revitalization work is underway by the Delaware Tribe of Indians.

Lenape is from /lənaːpːe/, a word in the Unami dialect whose most literal translation into English would be “the real people”.^[1][2] (The common schoolbook term, Lenni-Lenape is not correct, but translates as, “the original real-people”). The Lenape names for the area they inhabited were Scheyichbi, which means, “the place bordering the ocean”, and Lenapehoking, meaning “place where the people live”, although the latter is not universally accepted as historical. ^[3]

The Order of the Arrow, an affililate of the Boy Scouts of America, attempts to preserve some legends and language elements of Lenape tribe. However, numerous local lodges of the Order of the Arrow do not emulate the customs of the Lenape alone, but mingle the Lenape customs with those of completely dissimilar tribes (e.g., the Cherokee).

• Munsee-Delaware Nation 1, Ontario

• Munsee at Ethnologue
• Unami at Ethnologue
• Delaware (Lenape) Tribe of Indians
• Delaware Nation of Oklahoma
• Lenape Talking Dictionary

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